Brussels rejects UK broadband delay charge

Brussels has rejected claims that “stifling EU bureaucracy” was to blame for delays to the rollout of superfast broadband to Britain’s regions in an unusual public rebuke of Maria Miller, the UK culture secretary.

Joaquín Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, said “Brussels bureaucrats worked faster than their London colleagues” in clearing the way for state aid to hasten investment in high-speed internet services for rural areas. His comments came as Ms Miller was singled out for criticism by other ministers in an acrimonious cabinet meeting on Tuesday when the prime minister tackled several departments over the government’s faltering economic growth efforts.