Thieves take Digital Britain PCs

The thieves reportedly stole a 'couple of laptops'

Computers owned by the UK's Digital Inclusion Team, charged with getting millions of Britons online, have been stolen in a burglary.

The offices of the quango, based in London's Soho, were broken into overnight.

A spokesperson for Martha Lane Fox, the UK's Digital Champion said that "a couple of laptops had been stolen", but had no further comment on the incident.

Ms Fox revealed details of the break-in on the social networking site Twitter.

"O bloody hell the #digitalinclusion office has been broken into and all computers taken :((," she wrote.

Ms Fox, who co-founded lastminute.com in the late 1990s, was appointed Digital Champion by the UK government.

She has been given responsibility for connecting some of the 17 million Britons who are currently not online, either out of choice or because they cannot afford internet connectivity.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Ms Fox said she would initially concentrate on the six million poorest "nonliners" .

The Digital Inclusion Team is funded through the Department for Communities and Local Government.