Boris Johnson vows to give every home fast broadband by 2025

Boris Johnson vows to give every home fast broadband by 2025 – but doesn’t say how he will pay for it in latest major spending announcement

  • Tory leadership favourite says fast internet ‘not some metropolitan luxury’ 
  • Mr Johnson describes quick web access as an ‘indispensable tool of modern life’ 
  • Government’s current target for 100 per cent roll out of full-fibre is 2033 
  • Pledge ‘will cost some public money’ – but Mr Johnson did not say how much

Boris Johnson has vowed to deliver a fast internet connection to every home in the UK by 2025 in his latest major spending announcement.

The Government is currently aiming to have completed the rollout of full-fibre broadband to 100 per cent of homes by 2033, a target Mr Johnson described as ‘laughably unambitious’.

But the Tory leadership frontrunner said the pledge would be delivered within ‘five years at the outside’ if he becomes the next prime minister.

However, he failed to spell out exactly how he intended to pay for the move.  

Mr Johnson said having a quick internet connection should not be seen as ‘some metropolitan luxury’ but as an ‘indispensable tool of modern life’.

He also attacked as a ‘disgrace’ the current situation where many homes are unable to get online with any degree of speed as he promised to tackle the UK’s ‘deep digital divide’.

Announcing the pledge in The Telegraph, he said: ‘It cannot go on like this. The Government has just set a new target for the 100 per cent roll-out of full-fibre broadband – by 2033!

The former foreign secretary has already announced a plan to slash income tax for more than three million people at a cost of almost £10billion. It is unclear how much his plan to speed up the roll-out of fast broadband will cost

‘Tell that to rural Lincolnshire. As a deadline, that is laughably unambitious. 

‘If we want to unite our country and our society, we should commit now to delivering full fibre to every home in the land not in the mid-2030s – but in five years at the outside.’

Mr Johnson has already pledged to deliver an income tax cut for higher earners if he is successful in his bid to succeed Theresa May. 

Latest Tory leadership odds

Boris Johnson: 1/6

Rory Stewart: 12/1 

Jeremy Hunt: 21/1

Michael Gove: 45/1

Dominic Raab: 109/1

Sajid Javid: 129/1 

Source: Betfair, June 17 

He has promised to increase the threshold for the 40p rate from £50,000 to £80,000. 

The move would cost the Treasury just shy of £9.6billion a year but would benefit more than three milion people. 

It is unclear exactly how Mr Johnson intends to pay for increasing the speed of the broadband rollout. 

‘This will cost some public money, but the productivity gains are immense,’ he said. 

‘Every pound invested in full-fibre broadband will lead to economic gains worth many times the cost.’

The Government has estimated that it will cost between £3billion and £5billion to help deliver full-fibre in the final 10 per cent of remote areas which are not as commercially viable as more populated towns and cities.

Mr Johnson said enabling everyone in the UK to access fast broadband would help address one of the main factors which drove the 2016 Brexit vote. 

‘If there was one lesson from that referendum in 2016, it was that too much of the country feels unable to take part in the national success,’ he said. 

‘This rampant inequality in broadband is not just a symbol but also a practical cause of that division.’ 

The announcement came as Tory leadership challengers battled to make up ground on Mr Johnson in the race for Number 10. 

The former mayor of London is the prohibitive favourite for the top job after securing the backing of 114 Tory MPs in the first round of voting last Thursday. 

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, withdrew from the Tory leadership contest after finishing sixth in the first round. The remaining challengers are now seeking to win over his 20 supporters along with those of the other three candidates who were eliminated

The next round of voting will take tomorrow and Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab, Rory Stewart, Michael Gove and Sajid Javid will all be hoping narrow the gap to Mr Johnson. 

Three candidates were eliminated in the first round of voting while Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, decided to withdraw after concluding he could not win the contest. 

That means there are dozens of MPs up for grabs ahead of tomorrow’s vote when candidates will need to secure at least 33 votes to make it through to the next round of voting on Wednesday. 

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