Sport
Manchester lad Marcus Rashford is taking on UK MPs and winning
He is asking MPs to #maketheUturn on closing the free school meals scheme over the summer holidays.
The Manc -
16th June 2020 
Marcus Rashford has taken to Twitter this morning to share a hard-hitting thread of tweets that is once again seeing him receive overwhelming public support.
The 22-year old Manchester United forward is asking MPs to #maketheUturn on closing the free school meals scheme over the summer holidays.
Rashford, who has partnered with the charity FareShare and has helped raise over 20 million pounds to feed around three million vulnerable children across the UK during lockdown, published an open letter urging government officials to take action on Sunday evening.
The letter garnered mass public response and discussion.
Now, Rashford is currently trending number one on Twitter across the country this morning after a series of follow-up tweets which come after the government announced in response yesterday afternoon that it will not continue the free school meals scheme over the summer holidays.
A Department for Education spokesperson stated yesterday that: “Free schools meals are ordinarily term time only, and the national voucher scheme will not run during the summer holidays.”
“However, as announced this week by the Prime Minister, the local authority welfare assistance scheme will provide help those to who are struggling to afford food and other essentials due to the impact of COVID-19. £63 million pounds is being allocated to this important project.”
After posting the series of tweets this morning, Rashford once again called upon the public to “keep this noise going” and continue to keep the topic trending.
He said: “We are trending no 1 and 2 in England. I need everyone’s help to keep this noise going as I head to training but before I go, to ALL MPs in Parliament, this is not about politics.”
“The same way us players put rivalry aside when we put the England shirt on, please”.
The UK government is expected to formally respond to Marcus Rashford in due course.
A spokesperson for Boris Johnson confirmed that Rashford will receive a response from the Prime Minister “as soon as possible”, with the footballer being praised by Downing Street for “using his profile in a positive way to highlight some very important issues.”
More to follow.
