The government’s target to bring gigabit broadband to “every home and business across the UK” by 2025 seems to have been scaled back to reach 85% of the country.

Boris Johnson made the initial pledge as part of his 2019 manifesto, with £5bn of funding behind the scheme.

In a press release published on Tuesday, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport quoted the narrower aim.

Politics Live: Boris Johnson touring country in last week as PM

On a visit to Dorset to mark the start of the first major contract of plan, the outgoing prime minister said he was “very proud” of what his government had done during his tenure to further the rollout of the technology, which “delivered on what I said I was going to do”.

Mr Johnson added: “I said we would try to get up to 85% gigabit broadband, or 100% gigabit broadband. We’ve gone from 7% when I started to 70% in three years, in spite of COVID. It’s not half bad, in my view.”

A No 10 spokeswoman said Mr Johnson “remains committed to delivering better broadband coverage for the UK and we’ve seen an example of that today”.

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