Oral Answers to Questions

Gagan Mohindra Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman has raised the issue of the North sea. This is a point of significant difference between his party and ours. As Chancellor, I introduced a new levy on oil and gas companies because I believed that that was the right thing to do, but this is the point on which the right hon. Gentleman’s party and ours will always differ: we believe that our North sea producers do have an important role to play in our transition to net zero and are an important source of transition fuels, and we will ensure that we support them to enable them to invest in and exploit those resources for the British people.

[Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)]

Q8. Let me first welcome the Inter-Parliamentary Union delegation from Madagascar, whose members are in the Public Gallery. More locally, I am delighted that next year Openreach will roll out ultrafast broadband in Wigginton, in my constituency. However, other rural areas of south-west Hertfordshire, such as Dudswell, are still in dire need of better connectivity. Can the Prime Minister update the House on the progress of the £5 billion Project Gigabit?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right to recognise the role of broadband in providing levelling-up opportunities across our economy. We invested £5 billion in Project Gigabit and 71% of UK premises now have access to it, up from just 5% when we came into office. I am pleased to tell my hon. Friend that we will be launching a procurement process to provide gigabit coverage for his area in the coming weeks.