Rural Broadband: Installation

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Westminster Hall

[Sir Ashley Fox]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising that point, and I agree with her. That is why I started my speech with a reference to electricity being rolled out to the last few villages in the 1940s. We would think that was extraordinary nowadays. The Government certainly have a duty to roll out broadband to the whole country.

The previous Government had a good record on rolling out gigabit broadband throughout the UK. In 2018, full-fibre coverage stood at 6% of UK households; today, the proportion is 78%, which is a remarkable transformation. But the Minister will be aware that we need that to go up to 100%, and I hope he will outline how this Government will complete the journey.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

The hon. Gentleman is being so generous with his time. In North Shropshire we were really excited because we were included in Project Gigabit, which was going to roll out fibre broadband for 12,000 properties—mostly easier to reach ones, but it would have been a significant improvement none the less. Freedom Fibre, which had that contract, has handed it back, having connected only around 3,000 properties, and we now have to wait for Openreach to get around to it, despite the fact that, in the meantime, everybody has to pay BT for pretty poor broadband, come what may. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the Project Gigabit roll-out has been a shambles in some areas, and that the Government need to prioritise those areas that were promised an improvement but have been let down yet again, to make sure that they get their connections sooner rather than later?

[Sir Ashley Fox]

I think the word “shambles” is harsh; I would say that “patchy” is a more accurate description. Going from 6% in 2018 to 78% today is an achievement, and the hon. Lady should give some credit for that. The Conservative Government made a deliberate and strategic choice about the future of digital infrastructure. We chose a pro-competition, pro-investment regulatory framework that was designed not to crowd out private capital but to attract it, and that choice has delivered real results across the length and breadth of Britain.

5G Connectivity: Telford and West Midlands

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

The hon. Gentleman is making an excellent speech and a really good point, which applies equally to urban and rural areas. Mobile network operators do not have minimum standards of coverage and quality of signal. At some places where there was good coverage before, that now no longer appears to be the case because the signal quality is so poor. Does he agree that we need to look at a way to ensure mobile network operators provide a good quality signal to everyone?

[Shaun Davies]

I agree with my Shropshire neighbour. This is a rural issue and an urban one. A mobile signal is very much like a utility; people expect it to work for both their personal life and their work-related life.

Telford and Wrekin council kindly shared with me a report containing research by the River Severn Partnership. Between 2024 and 2025, it found a “significant difference” between what Ofcom estimated 5G coverage to be and real-world experience. The survey found that 28% of Telford postcodes did not have a good phone signal, but Ofcom claims there is not a single postcode in Telford where the signal is poor. Again, that is in direct contrast to the lived experiences of our residents. This goes to the heart of the problem and it is exactly what our residents are saying: what Ofcom and the Government say just does not live up to the real-life experiences.

In an answer to a written question last January, the then Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms, my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda and Ogmore (Chris Bryant), told me that 99% of all premises in my constituency have 5G available. I am not in any way attributing blame to that Minister, because I know that the Government get their data from Ofcom, which in turn gets its data from the network providers, and those network providers told me in a meeting this week that their data is provided through computer generation and analytics. The real-life experiences of residents are not taken into consideration.

The Local Government Association—an organisation with which I am very familiar—authored a report with the all-party parliamentary group on digital communities. That report was very validating for my constituents. It said that residents who make complaints are not imagining things, and the association took the same issue with Ofcom’s data, confirming that

“while Ofcom’s regulatory oversight has supported progress in expanding digital infrastructure, significant concerns remain about the accuracy of coverage data. The current system relies heavily on operator-supplied modelling, which often fails to reflect the lived experiences of residents.”

I want to make it clear that there are two sides to this problem, but they are connected. We need better reporting of 5G coverage, although obviously my constituents care more about improving the coverage itself. The path to better 5G infrastructure in my constituency and other constituencies across the west midlands requires an acknowledgment that there is a problem in the first place.

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Morgan]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. May I just highlight that I did not declare my interest as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on digital communities, which I should have done?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Fantastic; that is now on the record. I shall just remind the Minister that he is also more than welcome to come to my constituency of Sussex Weald to deal with any 5G connectivity questions.

Question put and agreed to.

Digital Landlines: Rural Communities

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

The right hon. Member might be aware that the all-party parliamentary group on digital communities, which I chair, produced a report this week on this very issue, where we urge the Government to take greater leadership in building awareness and ensuring that people are identified as vulnerable so that they can be helped in an emergency. Does he agree that the Government should look to take a greater leadership role in that area?

[Damian Hinds]

I am aware, and I do agree.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, who is entirely right to raise the subject of the impact of the SNP’s irresponsible management of Scotland’s finances and the austerity that it is inflicting on his constituents. Our Budget rejected a return to austerity. We delivered the largest real-terms funding settlement for Scotland since devolution, and the result of the Budget is clear: the SNP has the powers, it has the money, and it has no more excuses.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

Q14. Last week I was contacted by a constituent whose husband has stage 4 bowel cancer. He had a routine scan in June but did not receive the results until early November, and unfortunately during that period he received unsuitable chemotherapy and his cancer has progressed. Given that Shropshire has the worst record in the country for CT and MRI scan results, may I ask the Deputy Prime Minister the same question that my constituent has asked me? When will the Government address this problem?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I am sincerely sorry to hear about the hon. Lady’s constituent’s husband, the terrible diagnosis at stage 4, and the delays leading up to that. We have explained before how difficult the inheritance was in respect of the cancer diagnosis waiting lists. People are waiting far too long for treatment, which is why the Chancellor put a record amount of money into our NHS so that we could catch cancer in time. I know that the Health Secretary is determined, as a personal endeavour, to ensure that people do not have to wait and do not end up in the circumstances that are so tragic for the hon. Lady’s constituent.