Millions of pounds are to be handed directly to Scottish councils for a new roll-out of fibre broadband because the UK Government is “fed up” with the SNP’s “poor performance”, the Digital Minister has said.

Matt Hancock told the Telegraph that Scotland is lagging behind the rest of the UK for superfast broadband because the Scottish Government has been “sitting on UK taxpayers’ cash since 2014.”

He said English councils had performed better because they “have got on with delivering instead of playing politics with independence” and he will use a visit to Scotland on Monday to try and get the SNP administration “up to speed.”

While he said the Nationalists have yet to sign the contracts for the second phase of the broadband rollout, he argued local authorities in England are already planning for the third phase.

He denied he was criticising the Scottish Government for party political reasons, praising the Labour administration in Wales for its success in rolling out broadband in another rural country.

Mr Hancock delivered his broadside after Ms Sturgeon posted a series of tweets defending her government’s progress and insisting it was on track to meet its target of 95 per cent of premises having superfast broadband by the end of this year.