Doug Gurr has been announced as the preferred candidate to remain as chair of the Competition and Markets Authority.

Gurr was appointed as interim chair of the CMA in January 2025 and has now been selected to complete a full five-year term following an open competition for the role.

The government says that over the past 12 months, Gurr has worked with chief executive Sarah Cardell to transform the CMA by improving the pace, predictability, proportionality and process of their merger investigations.

However the appointment of the former Amazon UK country manager was criticised at the time by trade unions and consumer activists, who said the government was ‘in the pocket of Big Tech’.

Late last year, Gurr was also forced to deny claims of a ‘toxic culture’ at the Alan Turing Institute. He serves as chair of the UK’s national AI body.