I wouldn't use the term "penalize". So they are not penalizing websites simply promoting websites that use the TLD of the country they are targeting while the .com's may fall further down the results in the result of others being moved higher.
In fact isn't it just more relevant and make sense for Google to do this? I think having the TLD matched to the country you are targeting makes perfect sense.
Now what I disagree with, if Google is doing it, is not giving the same benefits to websites hosted in the UK (that are .com's) the same weight as websites with the co.uk TLD.
I also agree with kevingibbons that the geographic location of the IBLs might be weighting into the way Google ranks websites more.
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