Top bosses blast broadband plan

JEREMY CORBYN’S pledge to provide free fibre broadband for all will have a chilling effect on vital investment in Britain’s jobs and future, business leaders warned last night.

The Confederation of British Industry claimed Labour’s bid to part-nationalise BT as part of its plan would deter entrepreneurs from choosing this country.

CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This is exactly the kind of announcement that will make investors think twice before putting their money into the UK.’

Speaking ahead of the organisation’s annual conference in London tomorrow, she also warned existing progress on expanding broadband coverage will be stopped in its tracks by Labour’s move.

The rebuke will be all the more embarrassing for the Labour leader as he is due to address the conference.

Labour say they will give every home and business in the UK free full-fibre broadband by 2030.

Dame Carolyn urged Mr

Corbyn to come clean over Labour’s full nationalisation programme, and claimed the plan would have a ‘real chilling effect’.

But in a warning over Brexit to Boris Johnson’s Tories, the

CBI – which is politically neutral – will unveil a new business manifesto stressing the need to get a good Brexit deal. It will call for a ‘future relationship based on staying aligned with EU rules where they are essential for frictionless trade and protecting the UK’s world-beating services sector’.