DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 22 (Reuters) -

Britain forced out the chair of its antitrust regulator

because he was not focused enough on the government's drive to

boost economic growth, finance minister Rachel Reeves said on

Wednesday.

Marcus Bokkerink was replaced late on Tuesday by the

former Amazon executive Doug Gurr on an interim basis, the

government said, adding that he would bring a wealth of

experience in tech.

Reeves demanded the Competition and Markets Authority

and other British regulators "tear down the barriers hindering

businesses and refocus their efforts on promoting growth" in a

meeting last week.

She said on Wednesday Bokkerink had

stepped down after recognising that the CMA needed to be

headed up by someone who shared the government's "strategic

direction".

"He recognised it was time for him to move on and make way

for somebody who does share the mission and the strategic

direction that this government are taking," she told a Bloomberg

event at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos.

In October, the CMA was singled out by Labour Prime Minister

Keir Starmer when he promised to scrap regulation that was

holding back growth.

The regulator said the following month that it would focus

on "truly problematic mergers" and rethink its approach to

remedies that could allow more deals to go ahead to support the

government's growth mission.

However, its new approach did not go far enough for the

government.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Tuesday:

"We want to see regulators including the CMA supercharging the

economy with pro-business decisions that will drive prosperity

and growth, putting more money in people's pockets."

Gurr's appointment comes after the CMA stepped up its

scrutiny of Big Tech by establishing its Digital Markets Unit.

The unit, which gained new powers this month, is tasked with

ensuring that the biggest tech companies, such as Amazon.com ( AMZN )

, Alphabet's Google, Meta Platforms ( META ),

Apple ( AAPL ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ), do not abuse their

dominant market positions.