Outlining the party’s latest campaign policy, shadow Chancellor John McDonnell is set to say tomorrow how Labour will commit £20.3billion to set up the introduction of broadband. But Conservative MP Nicky Morgan labelled the plan “reckless”. She added: “Jeremy Corbyn’s fantasy plan to effectively nationalise broadband would cost hardworking taxpayers tens of billions.

“Corbyn is so clearly trying to distract from his party’s divisions on Brexit and immigration that he will promise anything, regardless of the cost to taxpayers and whether it can actually be delivered.

“What reckless idea will be next?”

The move would nationalise BT’s Openreach, which owns the bulk of the full-fibre network.

Mr McDonnell told The Times a new Labour government would make a priority of establishing the new state-owned entity, British Broadband.

It is unclear of the cost of the commitment as shareholders would be compensated at a price fixed by Parliament.

Bloomberg recently estimated Openreach’s value at between £12billion and £25billion.

The running costs on British Broadband are estimated at £230million a year and would be funded from a new tax on multinational companies.

Mr McDonnell claimed they would be charged a percentage of their profits, according to a calculation of what proportion of the assets, staff and turnover was located in Britain.

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He said that access to the internet had emerged as a critical factor for holding back local economies and driving young people to leave communities.

The shadow Chancellor added: “I’ve been touring around small communities to talk about how we develop their local economy.

“In every one of those meetings local people have raised the issue about how they develop their economy and the failure to be connected in terms of full-fibre broadband and how it is holding them back.”

More to follow…

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