Minister suffers embarrassing connection failure just moments after hailing broadband rollout
A Government minister today suffered an embarrassing connection failure as he conducted a broadcast interview to hail the rollout of gigabit-capable broadband across Britain.
Matt Warman, a minister at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, was left red-faced after his line dropped out while he spoke to LBC radio.
Just moments earlier, Mr Warman had been speaking about the Government’s ‘huge progress’ in providing connectivity across the UK.
Radio host Nick Ferrari branded the minister’s technical glitch ‘senational’ as he noticed how Mr Warman’s picture had frozen during the interview.
He said: ‘This is handy as you’re the broadband minister. You can’t hear me, can you? That is sensational and the picture’s frozen.
‘So there we go, we’ve got the Government banging on about however many billon pounds’ worth it is of… gigabit and he can’t take the question.
‘You can’t hear me but I’ll be polite, Matt Warman, minister for digital, culture, media and sport, talking about the progress of broadband and the line collapses, but thank you for your time.’
Just moments before his connection cut out, DCMS minister Matt Warman had been speaking about the Government’s ‘huge progress’ in providing connectivity across the UK
Radio host Nick Ferrari branded the minister’s technical glitch ‘senational’ as he noticed how Mr Warman’s picture had frozen during the interview.
Mr Warman’s shortened appearance on LBC came in his series of broadcast interviews this morning to promote the Government’s £5billion ‘Project Gigabit Delivery’.
Before his line cut out, Mr Warman had told LBC the proportion of people accessing gigabit-capable broadband had risen from nine per cent to 70 per cent in the last three years.
He said: ‘That is huge progress at a pace that was way above what we were hoping for when we set those targets in 2019, so really good news.
‘But of course there are still 30 per cent of people that we are working as fast as we possibly can to get to – and that pace shows that we’re going to get to them as quickly as we possibly can.’
Asked if the whole of the UK was connected, the minister replied: ‘Well, in some form, all bar the most remote properties are connected to broadband of some sort and satellite can mop up the rest, but there is a lot of work to do.
‘I’m not pretending anything else, but as I say, the pace that’s got us to where we are today is a huge sign of intent and the things that are to come… The vast majority of the… progress that we’re announcing today is coming from the private sector.’
