Marcus Rashford: MPs praise footballer's campaign after government's school meals U-turn

The Manchester United forward has been campaigning for the government to allow vulnerable children, who have been getting free meals during the coronavirus lockdown, to carry on receiving them over the summer holidays.

The 22-year-old’s campaign earned a groundswell of support after he penned an open letter to MPs earlier this week, though it appeared to fall on deaf ears at Downing Street, until an announcement yesterday that meal would indeed be provided, in an incredible U-turn.

Reacting to the decision on Twitter, Rashford wrote: "I don’t even know what to say. Just look at what we can do when we come together, THIS is England in 2020."

Rashford’s successful pleas were greeted with praise from the borough’s MPs and the town’s leading homelessness and poverty charity, The Brick.

Wigan MP Lisa Nandy said: “Amazing to see people come together and stand up for decency. But how on earth did we get to a place where the government seriously thought we should be debating whether to allow children to go hungry over the summer?”

Chris Green, Conservative MP for Bolton West and Atherton, said: “Like Marcus Rashford, I grew up as one of five children and I had received Free School Meals. That’s why I’m pleased that today the government has committed to extending Free Schools Meals this summer because of the exceptional circumstances arising from Covid-19.

“Children eligible for Free School Meals will get a six-week voucher. Well done, Marcus Rashford, on your campaign.”

In her column for this week’s Wigan Observer, which was published before the government announced its change of heart, Makerfield MP Yvonne Fovargue said “it would be deeply callous for the Government to withdraw support which would ensure children can eat for the six-week summer holiday.”

The Brick, which supports people facing poverty and homelessness across the borough, took to social media to back Rashford’s campaign, tweeting: “Thank you Marcus Rashford for your honest and sincere plea for MPs to make the U-turn on free school meals during the summer holidays. Holidays Without Hunger is a right for every child and family in the UK. Food poverty is very real and an absolute injustice.”

Rashford, who has raised £20m to boost food distribution with the charity FareShare, has admitted to using food banks and receiving free meals as a child.

He wants to help the families that need it the most, knowing how it felt to go hungry, and believes the Government revising its decision could be a small step towards fighting child poverty.

Writing in The Times before the decision was announced, Rashford said: “A U-turn on the decision to stop the free food voucher scheme continuing over the summer holidays could help us reach the next round but we still have a very long way to go as a country to eventually lift the trophy.

“In this case, the trophy is combating child poverty.

“I don’t claim to have the education of an MP in parliament, but I do have a social education. I am clued up on the difference a U-turn decision would make on the 1.3 million vulnerable children across the UK who are registered for free school meals because 10 years ago I was one of them.”

Rashford added in a series of tweets: “When you wake up this morning and run your shower, take a second to think about parents who have had their water turned off during lockdown.

“When you turn on your kettle to make a cup of tea or coffee think of those parents who have had to default on electricity bill payments just to make ends meet having lost their jobs during the pandemic.

“And when you head to the fridge to grab the milk, stop and recognise that parents of at least 200,000 children across the country this morning are waking up to empty shelving.

“Recognise children around the country are this morning innocently questioning ‘why?’ 9 out of 30 children in any given classroom are today asking ‘why?’ ‘Why does our future not matter?’”