Digital Minister: I'm fed up with SNP botching broadband so millions will go directly to Scottish councils

Millions of pounds are to be handed directly to Scottish councils for a new roll-out of fibre broadband because the UK Government is “fed up” with the SNP’s “poor performance”, the Digital Minister has said.

Matt Hancock told the Telegraph that Scotland is lagging behind the rest of the UK for superfast broadband because the Scottish Government has been “sitting on UK taxpayers’ cash since 2014.”

He said English councils had performed better because they “have got on with delivering instead of playing politics with independence” and he will use a visit to Scotland on Monday to try and get the SNP administration “up to speed.”

While he said the Nationalists have yet to sign the contracts for the second phase of the broadband rollout, he argued local authorities in England are already planning for the third phase.

He denied he was criticising the Scottish Government for party political reasons, praising the Labour administration in Wales for its success in rolling out broadband in another rural country.

Mr Hancock delivered his broadside after Ms Sturgeon posted a series of tweets defending her government’s progress and insisting it was on track to meet its target of 95 per cent of premises having superfast broadband by the end of this year.

The First Minister responded to criticism in the Commons this week, including an intervention by Theresa May, by arguing that Scotland has made quicker progress than the other home nations with a promise of faster speeds than England.

But Mr Hancock said she should stop “getting shouty on Twitter” and insisted the Scottish Government was “three years behind” the rest of the country.

Following an announcement by the Chancellor in this week’s Budget, he said Scottish councils will be able to bid directly for funding from a new £190 million programme to speed up the roll-out of full 5G fibre networks.

The row broke out following a Westminster Hall debate in parliament this week in which a series of Scottish Tory MPs highlighted the dire broadband speeds in their constituencies, even in some of the less rural parts.

An accompanying Commons Library briefing showed the proportion of those living in rural Scotland with access to superfast broadband increased from 31 per cent in 2015 to 46 per cent in 2016.

But in rural England it increased from 45 per cent to 62 per cent, in rural Wales from 54 per cent to 57 per cent and in rural Northern Ireland from 40 per cent to 52 per cent.

Although superfast broadband is a policy reserved to Westminster, the devolved administrations have responsibility for the roll-out in areas where providers such as BT and Virgin are unwilling to provide it on a commercial basis.

Around of a third of Scottish homes fall into this category and in 2010 the UK Government introduced a subsidised programme, handing £100 million to the SNP administration to deliver it.

The Scottish Government completed phase one of the programme but Mr Hancock said the contracts for the second phase had yet to be signed with providers despite funding being handed over three years ago.

The minister said: “The Scottish Government are three years behind and have been sitting on UK taxpayers’ cash since 2014 when they should have been delivering for people in Scotland.”

He said time would tell whether the SNP would reach the 95 per cent target by the end of year, with Scotland sitting on 92 per cent and the rest of the UK on 94 per cent.

But Mr Hancock added: “For the full fibre roll out we’re going directly to local authorities because we’re fed up with the Scottish Government’s poor performance. It has been done much more successfully by local authorities in England.”

Mr Hancock will highlight the new local authority scheme during visits on Monday to Stirling, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk seat of John Lamont, one of the new Scottish Tory MPs.

Mr Lamont used last week’s Westminster Hall debate, which he led, to highlight how his Borders constituency is ranked 621^st out of 650 in the UK for broadband speeds and blame the SNP for prioritising urban areas and independence.

The minister will also meet Fergus Ewing, the SNP’s Rural Economy Minister, to discuss how phase two of the superfast broadband roll-out could be speeded up in Scotland.

But Ms Sturgeon took to Twitter to respond to the Tory attacks and “set out some key facts”, arguing that more of the funding from her administration and its agencies than the UK Government.

She said a report published last year by Ofcom showed that Scotland had increased the rollout of superfast broadband at twice the rate than the rest of the UK. In addition, she said her administration was committed to a speed of 30mpbs compared to 10mpbs in the rest of the UK.

The UK Government has pledged a superfast broadband speed of 24mpbs for everyone with the service and at least 10mpbs for those not covered.

In response to Mr Hancock’s attack, Mr Ewing said: “Any assertion that Scotland is behind the rest of the UK is completely untrue. This has been recognised by Ofcom and by independent analysts such as ThinkBroadband.

“As a direct result of our investment, more than 800,000 premises now have access to fibre broadband, while we are on track to deliver 95 per cent coverage by the end of this year.”