Tory Party launches Technology Manifesto

The Tories believe that high-speed broadband is imperative to the UK's future

The Conservative Party launched its Technology Manifesto today, outlining its position on the digital agenda in the run-up to the general election later this year.

Chief among the proposals is a commitment to providing 100Mbit/s services to the majority of the UK, which the party argues will be 50 times faster than those proposed by Labour.

Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said that providing high-speed broadband is imperative to the UK's future economic position.

"Our ambition is to ensure that the next generation of Googles, Microsofts and Facebooks are British companies, and to achieve this we need to ensure that we have a superfast broadband structure," he said.

The Tories will open up access to government data sets on request, which it claims will provide a "multi-billion pound boost to the UK economy".

The Manifesto also outlines plans to create a level playing field for government IT procurement projects by making them available to smaller service providers and vendors as well as large multi-nationals, in order to "break up large IT projects into smaller components".

The Labour party has faced significant criticism in the past for its IT projects, particularly those in the NHS, where it has been accused of wasting billions of pounds.

"Our proposals will make the UK the most technology friendly government in the world, introducing a right to government data, extending superfast broadband, and offering a more level playing field for small firms," said shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.