THE government was urged today to take a leaf out of the 2019 Labour manifesto and provide free broadband to families homeschooling children during lockdown.

In Parliament Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked why the government hadn’t planned for the contingency of closed schools – and why 1.8 million children are still without access to a computer.

Under new measures in England, schools, colleges and universities have moved most of their teaching online for the third time since the pandemic hit in March last year.