History. 3 of 8: Lloyds TSB / HBOS 2008, Hytera / Sepura 2017, Trinity Mirror 2018.
Hunch. Lisa Nandy said on 5 October that the situation requires action now, and the one past deal with a failing company was approved in seven days.
The approval market resolves on gov.uk statements by the Culture Secretary and the CMA page for the deal, checked at 10:00 on 16 November 2026: YES if by the end of 15 November she approves BT's purchase of TalkTalk without sending it for a longer (phase 2) inquiry, with or without promises from BT. A referral, a block, BT walking away or no decision by then resolves NO, and BBC News and The Guardian settle it if gov.uk is silent.
We looked for cases where a UK minister took a merger decision away from the competition watchdog on public interest grounds, and the watchdog named a market where both companies worked. We found eight since 2007 among 21 such interventions on gov.uk. Each was a different deal, and two of them involved Sky.