Sir Edward Leigh called for improving the level of mobile phone coverage in the countryside at Science, Innovation, and Technology questions in the House of Commons.

"Why should people living in rural areas be second-class citizens when it comes to mobile phone coverage?" the West Lindsey MP asked.

Julia Lopez MP, the Minister of State for Data and Digital Infrastructure, replied that the Government agreed.

"That is why we have the shared rural network programme," the Minister added, "which is dealing with a lot of those 'notspot' problems."