Jeremy Corbyn has robustly defended Labour's ambitious plans to nationalise full fibre broadband after big business cried foul.
Announcing his policy the Labour leader said providing fast-speed internet to all parts of the UK is“too important to be left to the corporations”.
Adding the internet to Labour's pledges to nationalise rail, energy and water, he said: “What was once a luxury is now a utility”.
He promised the plan would “fire up” the economy, improve productivity and “bring half a million people back into the workforce.”
The Labour leader said it would reduce carbon emissions because it would reduce the need for commuting and end “patchy and slow coverage once and for all.”
Mr Corbyn said nationalised broadband would save the average household £30 a month.
But Labour was forced to defend the policy after the announcement knocked half a billion pounds off the value of BT after their shares dropped by around 4%.
While TalkTalk put the sale of its full fibre broadband business, FibreNation, on hold. While Boris Johnson dismissed the plan as a "crackpot scheme".
The Chief Executive of BT Philip Jansen described the plans as "very, very ambitious".
He added: "It needs funding, it is very big numbers, so we are talking 30 to 40 billion pounds ... and if you are giving it away over an eight year time frame it is a another 30 or 40 billion pounds.
"You are not short of 100 billion pounds."
Asked by BBC Five Live about introducing free broadband Prime Minister Boris Johnson said what he would not do is introduce “some crackpot scheme that would involve many, many billions of taxpayers’ money nationalising a British business”.
But a defiant John McDonnell doubled down on his plans refusing to rule out taking over other internet providers.
McDonnell said he hoped to come to an agreement with rival broadband companies such as Sky and TalkTalk over ensuring access, and if necessary they could "come within the ambit of British Broadband".
He said: "Well, we'll come to an agreement with them, either an agreement of access arrangements or working alongside us, or, yes, if necessary they can then come within the ambit of British Broadband itself."
Pushed on whether this means Labour would take these companies over, Mr McDonnell said: "I think we can come to an agreement - they're only 10% of the network and that's why we're doing this, because they've failed.
He continued: "I'm sure that we'll be able to ensure that we can come to an agreement, and, yes, if necessary there will be elements of compensation, but that's subject to negotiation."
Labour said the cost of nationalising parts of BT would be set by parliament and paid for by swapping bonds for shares.
Labour said it would roll out the free broadband to all individuals and businesses by 2030, providing it to at least 15 million to 18 million premises within five years.
It said the plan would save the average person 30.30 pounds a month. Under its plans, Labour said there would be a one-off capital cost of 15.3 billion pounds to deliver the full-fibre network, on top of the 5 billion already promised by Johnson.
Defending plans to force big companies to foot the bill, Mr McDonnell said: "We're not being unfair to anyone, we're simply saying you make your profits here, on the percentage of the profits you make here, you pay your taxes properly."
Pushed on why Labour are choosing to make broadband free and not water, he added: "I think in some respects what we're trying to do here is ensure that we get a significant economic benefit immediately over that ten year period, and that's what this will do, that's the first thing, and rolling it out to the whole of the country I think will provide us with that huge productivity boost."
On why it should be free, he said: "Because it gives that access to everyone, and those start up businesses that want to get into the system itself.
It will increase productivity immediately over that ten year period.
As I said, the prediction is £59 billion increase in productivity."
