ABSTRACT
Competition policy in the UK was limited prior to 1945; it was the Attlee government that constructed an antitrust framework leading to a bipartisan model that endured into the Thatcher years. Centred around the Office of Fair Trading and Monopolies and Mergers Commission, UK competition policy nevertheless retained a significant discretionary component. The Thatcher government boosted competition predominantly through deregulation, without major changes to antitrust arrangements. Although the Major government adopted a more consensual approach to competition and its regulation, it was left to New Labour to overhaul the post-war system in its 1998 and 2002 legislation.
