Stephen Timms has attacked the Conservative Party's new proposal for the rollout of super-fast broadband.

The Digital Britain Minister has described the Tories' vision of universal 100Mb broadband by 2017 as "hopeless" and lacking funding.

Commenting on micro blogging site Twitter, the Labour minister stated: "Conservative broadband policy hopeless. Minor regulatory tweaks, already in hand, not the answer. Funding needed, & soon."

Speaking yesterday, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said the Conservatives would be aiming to make the UK government the most technology-friendly in the world if they win the upcoming general election.

He stated: "For too long we have endured a closed shop government, which keeps information from the public, fails to stimulate innovative industries and wastes money on bloated, unnecessary and gold-plated IT projects."

Mr Maude said the Conservative policy would create a much more level playing field for small and medium-sized businesses.

Under existing Labour plans, the Digital Britain target is universal 2Mb broadband by 2012.