Marcus Rashford is today being hailed as the hero of lockdown as his successful free school meals campaign became yet another unlikely victory for a young footballer who has already defied the odds to become one of England’s top sportsmen.
The 22-year-old star says leaving home aged 11 to join Manchester United’s academy when his single mother Melanie struggled to feed the family has driven his campaign to ensure other children in the UK do not go hungry.
Today the England striker forced Boris Johnson into an extraordinary U-turn less than 24 hours after the Prime Minister refused to budge on finding £110million to give free school meals to 1.3million vulnerable children for six weeks over the summer. Rashford hailed the news this afternoon, tweeting: ‘I don’t even know what to say. Just look at what we can do when we come together, THIS is England in 2020.’
It caps an incredible lockdown for Marcus, who has used the past three months to recover from a double back fracture while also helping to supply three million meals for children out of school, raising around £20million along with charity FareShare. He is now joint-favourite to become BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Marcus, who earns £200,000-a-week at Man United and lives in a £1.8million mansion with a fleet of luxury cars, has not said how exactly much he has donated himself but admitted he started the fund with ‘£50,000 to £60,000’ of his own money with Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and wealthy individuals handing over millions more.
He grew up in a £150,000 terraced council house on the tough Northern Moor estate in Wythenshawe, an area of Manchester area where the hit series Shameless was filmed, and which has suffered badly from high crime rates, poverty and drug problems.
Marcus has such fond memories of the Manchester home that he has a tattoo of it just below his heart with a compass above it reminding him of where he has come from. There is also a small figure playing football on the green outside, which he would do while others on the estate got into trouble.
And in a moving note written when he was a child, which emerged today on Instagram, he said: ‘I only have one dream in life and that is to be a professional footballer. I want to have a different lifestyle and make my family and others proud of me’.
His mother Mel is at the heart of ‘Team Rashford’ and he is also supported by his older brothers Dwaine and Dane, who act as his agents, and his PR executive girlfriend Lucia Loi. He is also close to his two half-sisters including Tamara, a former Miss England contestant, who share the same father, Robert Rashford.
Team Rashford: Marcus after a World Cup match in 2018 with his mother Mel, centre left, brothers Dwaine, far left and Dane, far right, and girlfriend Lucia Loi (centre right)
Marcus outside the home he grew up on a tough council estate in Wythenshawe, left, which he has tattooed below his heart to remind him of his roots, right
In a note written when he was 11, around the time he left home to join the Manchester United academy, Marcus wrote about his dream to play professional football and change his and his family’s lives
Marcus, pictured during his primary school years, has movingly described how his mother worked to provide for him and his siblings but struggled to put food on the table. Rashford benefited from the free school meals system while growing up, dreaming of football. He is pictured right posing in a Manchester United shirt, the club he has always supported
Marcus Rashford is now bookmakers’ joint-favourite to win this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award after persuading the Government to make a U-turn on free school meals.
The England and Manchester United star has spearheaded a campaign that has raised £20million to provide three million meals for disadvantaged children during the Covid-19 lockdown.
And Rashford’s outstanding campaigning has now seen him fall from odds of 80/1 and leapfrog Jordan Henderson and Lewis Hamilton to become the 6/4 SPOTY joint-favourite with boxer Tyson Fury, according to Paddy Power.
His school meals campaign is grounded in his family’s own struggles to put food on the table. He described being famished as he waited outside the family home until his mother arrived home at 7.30pm to cook the family a meal after working all day at a Ladbrokes bookmakers.
In an emotional piece for the Times’ Red Box today he wrote: ‘ My mum would go days without sleeping, worrying about how she would cover the next round of bills, worried that I could get in trouble, mixing with the wrong crowds, if she couldn’t keep her eyes on me while working every hour of the day. Even at seven or eight years old I recognised her worry, but I also recognised that she was trying her best. I’ve said it once and I will say it again: this system was not built for families like mine to succeed, no matter how hard we are working.’
In separate interviews he revealed: ‘My mum was a single parent, she had five kids all living in the same house. The programme that I started at 11 years old (at Manchester United), you’re supposed to start it at 12 years old.
‘It basically gives you accommodation closer to the training facilities and a new school and she worked that hard to push it forward because she knew that was a step I needed to take.
‘I needed to be eating the right food as I was growing, I needed to be close to my team-mates, my new school and my new school friends. She made that decision when I was 11 years old and United allowed it.
‘That was the reason I ended up going at a younger age to the others, it was to help my mum with her situation and also get me out of the situation were were in. So there is always a big element of sacrifice to get to the top level and that’s the one we had to make.’
He added: ‘It’s only now that I really understand the enormous sacrifice my mum made in sending me away to live in digs aged 11, a decision no mother would ever make lightly’.
Over the past 13 weeks Marcus has also learned sign language to promote Deaf Awareness Week – urging the Government to teach it in schools – supporting a charity celebrating ‘local heroes’, and encouraging children to read on World Book Day.
Rashford and his Old Trafford teammates have also committed to donating at least £1million to NHS hospitals in Manchester by handing over up to 30 per cent of their salaries during the pandemic.
Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford arrives at the club’s Carrington training complex this morning
Over the past 13 weeks Marcus has also learned sign language to promote Deaf Awareness Week – urging the Government to teach it in schools – supporting a charity celebrating ‘local heroes’, and encouraging children to read on World Book Day (pictured: A property owned by Marcus in Cheshire)
Rashford’s mother Melanie persuaded United to allow him into their academy a year early because she was struggling to feed her five children
His older brother Dwaine (left) has been his agent throughout his career supported by his other brother Dane (right) – pictured together outside the home they grew up in
Marcus Rashford is seen with his PR executive girlfriend Lucia Loi during the FIFA World Cup in Moscow, Russia in 2018
Ms Loi (middle with Rashford right), who works as a PR executive for a Manchester-based company called Sugar, is likely to have helped advise him on how to handle his charity campaigning
As the coronavirus crisis hit, Marcus Rashford felt obligated to do something to help the young and potentially vulnerable children who may begin to suffer without free school meals
His older brother Dwaine has been his agent throughout his career supported by his other brother Dane, shunning super-agents often used by Premier League stars.
Marcus’ brothers have helped him win a huge new contract with Manchester last year worth £40million over four years plus a £2million contract to be the face of Nike in the UK.
His girlfriend Lucia Loi, works as a PR executive for a Manchester-based company called Sugar, is also likely to have helped advise him on how to handle his charity campaigning.
His mother Mel, 56, a devout Christian, has, in her own words, been determined to ‘keep his feet on the ground’ despite her son now earning £10.4million-a-year at Manchester United.
Friends say he is regular visitor to the estate, where his father Robert is believed to live, although has looked after his mother and siblings, buying his mother a £800,000 home three miles from the property they grew up in Wythenshawe.
He lives in a new £1.85million six-bedroom mansion nearby close to other Man United players including best friend Jesse Lingard.
His mum said recently: ‘Of course I’ll be doing my best to help him stay grounded. We are doing a great job as a family to keep his feet on the ground’.
Marcus is understood to have little contact with his father Robert, 55, whose name is not even on his birth certificate, according to The Sun on Sunday.
Robert, believed to be a local football coach himself, has said he would tell his ‘side of the story when the time is right’ – but cousin revealed recently: ‘Robert has only had minimal contact but he blames Mel for keeping him away’.
Six-year-old Marcus celebrates winning with Fletcher Moss Rangers before he was picked up by Man United
Marcus is a regular on the estate where he grew up, pictured here playing football outside the property he grew up in
Boris Johnson caves in to Marcus Rashford on free school meals and announces ALL eligible children will get £15 voucher in summer holidays after huge campaign by Man U star
Boris Johnson today dramatically U-turned over giving disadvantaged children free school meals over the summer after a string of Tory MPs backed calls from Marcus Rashford.
The PM announced that around 1.3million children currently eligible for free lunches in England will get vouchers worth £15 a week that can be spent in supermarkets.
Downing Street said the £120million Covid Summer Food Fund was ‘one-off’ recognition of the struggles families faced as lockdown sends the economy into a tailspin. ‘The Prime Minister fully appreciates the problems facing families across the UK during this difficult times,’ Mr Johnson’s spokesman said.
The climbdown followed a growing Tory revolt urging him to think again after rejecting the appeal from Rashford. The footballer told his legion of social media followers earlier: ‘We aren’t beaten yet’.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt was among those saying that the position would have to change, while education select committee chair Robert Halfon threatened to vote against the government in a Commons debate later.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey risked inflaming the situation by engaging in a Twitter spat with Rashford after he said children did not have access to showers.
Rashford hailed the news this afternoon, tweeting: ‘I don’t even know what to say. Just look at what we can do when we come together, THIS is England in 2020.’
Labour leader Keir Starmer said: ‘This is another welcome u-turn from Boris Johnson. The thought of 1.3 million children going hungry this summer was unimaginable. Well done to @MarcusRashford and many others who spoke out so powerfully about this issue.’
Marcus Rashford arrives for training at Manchester United’s Carrington training ground today in his Mercedes G-Wagon amid growing pressure on Boris Johnson to u-turn on free school meals for children over the summer
Rashford hailed the news this afternoon, tweeting that it showed what could be done when ‘we come together’
Marcus Rashford (left) today criticised Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey (right) in an exchange on Twitter about his campaign for free school meals to be extended across the summer
Boris Johnson (right) made the U-turn after Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey was caught up in a spat with Rashford on Twitter (left). The footballer mentioned that ‘parents who have had their water turned off during lockdown’, to which Ms Coffey replied ‘Water cannot be disconnected though’. The footballer said he was ‘concerned’ Ms Coffey had only acknowledged that particular tweet
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The PM acted as he faced being left isolated with Governments in Scotland and Wales agreeing to extend the school meals scheme.
Nicola Sturgeon confirmed at her daily coronavirus press conference that local councils in Scotland will be given a further £12.6million to extend provision until schools reopen from August 11.
The Scottish government has been funding lunches for around 175,000 children during the lockdown using hubs, supermarket vouchers and cash payments.
Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, a vocal critic of Mr Johnson’s approach to Brexit who quit when he prorogued Parliament in 2019, earlier urged him to change his mind and ‘feed the kids’ as the devolved
She said: ‘Am baffled why [Westminster] colleagues are picking this hill to die on. I didn’t have or need free school meals, but I went to a school where a huge % did. Food security during the holidays so important. It’s basic. Feed the kids.’
Conservative chairman of the EduczFellow Tory MP George Freeman also tweeted: ‘Free School Meals are a lifeline for many v low income families. Let’s do the right thing: extend FSM thru summer.’ While former Tory adviser to Theresa May, Nick Timothy, said: ‘Congratulations to Marcus Rashford, who I expect will be able to declare victory some time before this afternoon’s opposition day debate’.
Mr Johnson was previously forced to carry out another U-turn on making migrant health workers pay the NHS levy, after resisting for days.
Ms Coffey was blasted as ‘cold’ and ‘uncaring’ after her blunt response to Mr Rashford’s claims about poorer families being deprived of running water.
In a string of tweets today repeating his call for Mr Johnson to change his mind, the 22-year-old star wrote: ‘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 #maketheuturn.’
However, Ms Coffey then replied: ‘Water cannot be disconnected though’.
Piers Morgan told Good Morning Britain viewers the tweet was ‘shameful and disgusting’, while Rashford took exception to the minister picking out one of his posts from dozens about the campaign.
He then tweeted in reply to Ms Coffey: ‘I’m concerned this is the only tweet of mine you acknowledged. Please, put rivalries aside for a second, and make a difference.’
The Manchester United star and England star, 22, who has been backed by a string of Tory and Labour MPs and Gary Lineker, said that changing the Prime Minister’s mind is the ‘trophy’ he wants this summer with the hashtag #maketheuturn trending on Twitter this morning.
In a string of tweets today repeating his call for Mr Johnson to change his mind, he wrote: ‘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 #maketheuturn.’
And amid a gale of criticism the Tory MP for Suffolk Coastal tweeted Marcus directly saying: ‘Hi @MarcusRashford, I welcome your passion for supporting children and the most vulnerable in society – a passion we share. We are working to the same aim’.
She added: ‘We are working to the same aim. I & this Govt will continue to actively help and support families and businesses through this emergency and beyond.’
Piers Morgan blasted Mr Coffey for her ‘tone deaf’ and ‘heartless’ response.
‘People wonder why we shout at these people. I would probably shout at her right now, if she was on, Therese Coffey – wouldn’t you?’ he said.
‘That’s her response. One line. Unbelievable. The tone-deafness of that response just about epitomises this government – devoid of empathy.’
Today, Rashford continued his campaign for free school meals over the summer with a blizzard of tweets and a newspaper article demanding the Government carry out a u-turn.
Rallying his supporters, he tweeted this morning: ‘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 #maketheuturn.’
Earlier, he had written in The Times: ‘Today I focus on a trophy that stands for something much bigger than football.
‘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.’
But the Government is refusing to budge with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisting they have been ‘wrapping its arms around the community’ via the furlough scheme and payments to local government bodies instead. But there are growing numbers of backbench Tories who believe Boris Johnson should change the policy immediately.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, he said: ‘It is usually the case that over the summer holidays, free school meals are not available, schools are not there’.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Conservative chairman of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon said he was worried that Britain is facing ‘an ice age for vulnerable children’ as the latest figures show ‘2.5 million children are not learning’ while away from school and food insecurity has ‘nearly doubled’.
The Tory MP said extending the free school meals programme ‘would be the right thing to do’ but ‘there are mixed views’ among Conservative politicians.
He said: ‘Families have not only faced health worries but enormous financial anxieties and enormous stress, many of them being made redundant.’
Mr Halfon added: ‘There are lots of food programmes across different Government departments. If they just consolidated those programmes, they would almost have the money for the free school meals programme over the summer, which would cost roughly £110 million’
There are growing numbers of backbench Tories who believe Boris Johnson should change the policy immediately
The England star insists: ‘We are not beaten yet’ as he continues his campaign
Transports Minister Grant Schapps addressed the issue on breakfast TV this morning
He continued his plea for change in a series of tweets this morning with the hashtag #maketheuturn trending on Twitter this morning
Rashford had hoped his letter would help persuade the Government to continue providing free school meals for children but Boris Johnson has rejected his plea. He now wants a u-turn
Gary Lineker has now joined footballer Marcus Rashford in calls for the Government to extend its free school meal voucher scheme through the summer holidays
Gary Lineker appeared on BBC Newsnight last night and he urged the Government to consider the struggles of impoverished families during the coronavirus crisis.
‘Obviously these are strange times. Kids wouldn’t ordinarily be fed during the summer holidays, I understand that. But you’ve got to look at it and go ”These are very, very difficult times for a lot of people and a lot of families”,’ the former England striker and Match of the Day presenter said.
‘There are a lot of young people, young children, in this country that are going hungry. And in a country like ours, a country of quite substantial wealth, that seems to be largely unacceptable.
‘Hopefully the powers that be will listen. It seems strange that we have to be in a position where we are desperately arguing to try to get young people fed, and stop them being hungry.’
Lineker also praised Rashford, saying: ‘When you look at it, though, he’s a 22 year old footballer. He shouldn’t be the one having to do this. But the fact that he is, is important. It’s impressive. He’s a very fine young man, and he’s a credit to his sport and his family.’
Rashford wrote a column in The Times newspaper todayaddressing the meal voucher issue and the broader subject of childhood poverty.
‘I don’t claim to have the education of an MP in parliament, but I do have a social education,’ Rashford wrote.
‘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 ten years ago I was one of them.’
‘Thousands of children will also receive additional support through our Holiday Activities and Food programme, which offers activities and free meals throughout the summer holidays,’ they added.
Yesterday No10 said the PM would reply to the footballer by letter.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘The PM will respond to Marcus Rashford’s letter as soon as he can – he has been using his profile in a positive way to highlight some very important issues.’
A food voucher scheme was set up to make sure children on free school meals would be fed during lockdown after schools shut in March.
Vouchers worth £15 were given to families each week in supermarkets.
But the scheme was set to end next month.
In a letter to the House of Commons, the Manchester United forward wrote: ‘Political affiliations aside, can we not all agree that no child should be going to bed hungry?
‘The Government has taken a ‘Whatever it takes’ approach to the economy – I’m asking you today to extend that same thinking to protecting all vulnerable children across England.
‘I encourage you to hear their pleas and find your humanity. Please reconsider your decision to cancel the food voucher scheme over the summer holiday period and guarantee the extension. This is England in 2020, and this is an issue that needs urgent assistance.
‘Please, while the eyes of the nation are on you, make the U-turn and make protecting the lives of some of our most vulnerable a top priority.’
England international Rashford penned a powerful letter to the Government on Sunday
He urged the Government to provide free meals for vulnerable children during school holidays
Rashford relied on breakfast clubs and free school meals while growing up in Manchester. He wrote: ‘As a black man from a low-income family… I could have been just another statistic.
‘I would be doing myself, my family and my community an injustice if I didn’t stand here today with my voice and my platform and ask you for help.’
The 22-year-old’s open letter has received support from education leaders and teachers’ unions
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, the country’s biggest teachers’ union, said the union ‘fully supports’ Rashford’s demand to provide free school meals over the summer.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ‘If the Government is genuinely committed to social equity, it must extend the provision of free school meals to continue during the summer holidays.
‘Disadvantaged families are likely to have been hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, and the very least we can do as a society is ensure that children from these backgrounds have something to eat.’
Former education secretary Justine Greening also backed the footballer’s demands. She said: ‘I know from my experience that there are lots of difficult decisions for ministers to take – this is an easy one.’
Rashford, who has raised £20 million to boost food distribution with the charity FareShare, has admitted to using food banks and receiving free meals as a child.
He said he wants to help the families that need it the most, knowing how it felt to go hungry.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, added: ‘Holiday hunger has always been a great concern for school leaders and this summer is likely to be especially challenging for many low-income families given the impact of lockdown on finances.
‘We agree with Marcus Rashford that the Government must not let children go hungry over the summer and should provide funding to extend free school meals.’
Rashford benefited from the free school meals system while growing up, dreaming of football. Here he is pictured posing in a Manchester United shirt, the club he has always supported
The Labour Party had called an opposition day debate in Parliament later to call on the Government to continue to directly fund the provision of free school meals over the holidays.
Labour launched a Holidays Without Hunger campaign on Sunday.
Shadow education secretary Rebecca Long Bailey will say: ‘Any government that is willing to let the poorest children in the country go hungry needs to take a long hard look at its priorities.
‘Shamefully, children go hungry every year, but this summer will be especially difficult for many families as job losses and reduced incomes hit household budgets.
‘It would be deeply callous of the government not to take this small step to ease the financial pressure on households and ensure children can eat during the summer holidays.’
Former Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw added his name to the cause, saying the Government ‘should be bending on this one’ and that Mr Rashford was ‘absolutely right to draw attention to this’.
‘I know lots of head teachers who are so worried about their children who are on free school meals, their poorest children, who have lost out the most during this crisis,’ Sir Michael told Newsnight.
‘Those head teachers are going to bringing those children in over the summer break, they’re going to be inviting their staff into school over the summer break to teach them, to make sure they don’t lose out any more.
‘Now if they’re going to be doing that, and those children are going to be coming into school over the summer break, to catch up, they need food.’
