LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should conduct an independent assessment of a potential takeover of British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, opposition Labour party leader Ed Miliband said on Sunday.
AstraZeneca rejected a 63 billion pound ($106 billion)takeover bid from Pfizer on Friday, but the U.S. firm is expected to pursue its interest.
"We need a more substantive assessment of whether this takeover is in the national economic interest before the UK government allows itself to be seen to be supporting it," Miliband said in a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron.
The government has said it has no intention of intervening in the deal and considers it a matter for shareholders.
But ministers have been pressing Pfizer for assurances over jobs and continued investment in research and development facilities in Britain.
Speaking on the BBC, Miliband accused Cameron of being a "cheerleader" for the takeover.
"No other country in the world would be waving this bid through, nodding it through, on the basis of pretty weak assurances from Pfizer," he said. Pfizer wrote to Cameron on Friday pledging to retain British jobs and a planned scientific research hub in Cambridge.
($1 = 0.5927 British Pounds)
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Catherine Evans)