Angus MP in online spat with First Minister over high-speed broadband provision

Angus MP Kirstene Hair and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon have taken to social media to fight out a spat over Scotland’s broadband speeds.

Ms Hair and north-east Conservative colleagues said a pledge from Prime Minister Theresa May that the next wave of broadband will be delivered by councils instead of the SNP Government was a welcome response to the “unacceptable” provision in many local constituencies.

High-speed broadband access targets were set by the UK Government in 2010, but money and responsibility for delivery was given to the Scottish Government.

In a Westminster debate Minister of State for Digital Matt Hancock said: “As a result of our experience of delivering superfast broadband through the Scottish Government thus far, we have decided that for the next generation of broadband technology, for fibre, we will instead deal directly with local authorities across Scotland as we do in England.”

After claiming the Scottish Government was failing Angus over broadband provision, Ms Hair was accused by the First Minister of showing “breathtaking ignorance of reality” as the two went to war on Twitter.

Ms Hair said Digital Scotland had failed to match the speeds of any English local authority area.

“Angus quite simply is being failed by the Scottish Government,” she said.

Ms Hair posted a tweet saying: “Delighted that the Prime Minister confirmed that next stage of broadband roll out will bypass shambolic SNP Government and go straight to local authorities.”

In response, the First Minister said: “The ignorance of reality displayed by this tweet is quite breathtaking.”

Rural economy secretary Fergus 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.”

Angus MP Kirstene Hair.