News
Marcus Rashford shames Boris Johnson for plan to cut £20 benefits lifeline
The England and Manchester United forward warned: “Instead of removing vital support, we should be focusing on developing a long-term roadmap out of this child hunger pandemic.”
Marcus Rashford has called on Boris Johnson and the government to not axe the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit.
The Manchester United forward, who last year forced Boris Johnson into a U-turn on taking free school meals from kids during the holidays, said millions of people will ‘lose a lifeline’ when the extra money is scrapped next month.
Marcus warned: “Instead of removing vital support, we should be focusing on developing a long-term roadmap out of this child hunger pandemic.”
Almost eight in 10 on UC will find it harder to feed their kids when £80 a month worse off under the cut, a poll by the The Food Foundation charity found.
It comes after Rashford launched a national campaign with The Food Foundation to end child food poverty earlier this month, in which he called on members of the public to write to their MPs on the issue.
The Manchester-born footballer also wants the government to provide long-term funding for food and activities during school holidays and expand the Healthy Start voucher scheme to households earning £20,000 or less after benefits.
Anna Taylor, the executive director of the Food Foundation, which is working with Rashford, said food insecurity was “surging and is set to get a lot worse”.
She said: “It takes its toll not just on the wellbeing of children, but also on wider society. Getting ahead of this crisis is the litmus test of the government’s ambition to level up.
“Stopping the cut to universal credit and extending free school meals to poor children who currently miss out would provide a minimum protection for at-risk children. It is baffling that currently the government is planning neither. That’s why it is so important that everyone gets their voices heard and asks their MP to support this in the forthcoming spending review.”
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, on Sunday defended the planned universal credit cut, saying salaries were rising faster than the cost of living and that the government needed to rein in spending from the pandemic.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show: “I think most people recognise that if it’s brought in for the pandemic, it’s going to end as we move back to people going back to work and more normal times.
“We can’t keep all these things in place, otherwise you’d have to put several pennies on income tax to pay for the policy to run.”
News
Two men jailed after series of Porsche thefts across Greater Manchester totalling £1m
Emily Sergeant
Two men have been handed prison sentences following a series of Porsche thefts across Greater Manchester.
An investigation into the actions of Eidmantas Sadauskas and Vytautas Ceponis, both of no fixed abode, by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) began back in January of this year.
Described as being ‘sophisticated’ operation, the pair used equipment and tools to disable the vehicle security alarms and gain access to them, before they would then clone the vehicles, using different registration plates to allow them to slip under the radar.
In total, 25 Porsches – estimated, in total, as being approximately £1 million – were linked to the theft series and identified as having been taken by Sadauskas and Ceponis.
The thefts occurred across Greater Manchester – including in Salford, Bury, Trafford, Manchester, and Stockport – and it’s believed they were being stolen to be sold on for illegal gain.
The thefts occurred between January and October 2025, according to police, before the investigation began.
A comprehensive investigation Stockport’s Neighbourhood Crime Team (NCT) found that Sadauskas and Ceponis were mapped out as being in the areas of the crimes as they occurred, and the vehicles involved in the thefts were additionally identified as being linked to them.
The pair subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal motor vehicles at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court in late November, before their sentencing last Friday.
Ceponis was jailed for four years for conspiring to steal motor vehicles, while Sadauskas was jailed for four-and-a-half years for conspiring to steal motor vehicles.
Several of the Porsches have since been recovered, and police say work remains ongoing to locate the outstanding vehicles and reunite them with their owners.
“No one should have their property taken from them,” commented PC Chris Hopkins, from GMP’s Stockport NCT. “As officers in the Neighourhood Crime Team, we work proactively to tackle these sorts of offences and punish those responsible.
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“We have recovered several of the stolen vehicles and will continue to do so while Sadauskas and Ceponis are behind bars.”
Featured Image – GMP
News
Fans are preparing to pay tribute to Mani from The Stone Roses ahead of his funeral service
Danny Jones
Stone Roses fans and Greater Manchester locals alike are getting ready to pay their respects to the late, great, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, following his tragic passing last month.
As well as details surrounding his funeral being announced earlier this week, the iconic Manc musician’s cause of death has also finally been revealed.
Mani was sadly confirmed dead on 20 November, aged just 63, just over a month on from attending fellow local legend and friend Ricky Hatton’s memorial and public procession.
While Hatton’s service featured a high-profile cortège which started all the way from his hometown of Hyde, past multiple landmarks and ending at the Etihad Stadium, those local to Mani’s family home on the edge of Stockport are also being welcomed to help send him off.
It has now been confirmed that Mani – born in Crumpsall but raised in Moston and Failsworth – unfortunately passed away from long-term respiratory issues.
He had been struggling with emphysema for some time; he was declared dead at his home in the suburb of Heaton Moor, and is said to have died peacefully in his sleep.
As you can see from the posters put in various places around the area, residents wishing to pay their own tributes to Mani before his private funeral service at Manchester Cathedral are encouraged to line the long street leading down from St Paul’s and Heaton Moor United Church as he heads towards the city.
Departing Parsonage Road from 10am on Monday, 22 December, before turning right onto Heaton Moor Rd, then Wellington and eventually on to the Cathedral, you can expect plenty of people to show up.
One of those people will be his former bandmate and another influential guitarist, John Squire, who is one of many famous musical names to have honoured him in their own way over the last few weeks.
Other members of The Stone Roses, as well as Primal Scream (who he joined in 1996), are expected to join the close family and friends at the service itself.
Nevertheless, we have no doubt that plenty will be observing the funeral in their own way.
So, for those of you also looking to honour him, you know what to do; and to quote the poster itself, “together we can show this local legend and his family that he was truly adored.”
Rest in peace.
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Featured Images — @gachayatta (via X)/@aktivioslo (via Flickr)
The Manc -
27th September 2021 
