Marcus Rashford revealed that he spoke to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday after the government screamed a U-turn on school meals during the summer holidays.
The Manchester United striker had been initially met with resistance over his campaign to see struggling families provided with school food vouchers.
The government had been warned for several weeks about the issue but it took the determination of the 22-year-old England star to force the issue-and ultimately their hand.
Originally the British ministers said there would be no school food vouchers. But on Tuesday, the spokesman for Johnson announced that the government would have about £120m of a summer food fund for COVID, which would support about 1.3million children. Johnson said he was unaware of the initiative until Tuesday.
Johnson congratulated Rashford during his press briefing on Tuesday, saying: “I spoke to Marcus Rashford earlier today to congratulate him on his bid, which, to be truthful, I have only recently become aware of-well. And I would like to thank him for what he did, I think he’s right to bring this issue to the attention.”
It was quite the assertion by Johnson, given his official spokesman was aware of Rashford ‘s campaign Monday lunchtime, where he had ignored it.
Liberal Democrat leadership contender Layla Moran has described the PM ‘s assertion as “Utterly Bizarre.”
Rashford has revealed to the BBC that Johnson has praised him for his tenacity and speaking out.
He added: “I am grateful to the Prime Minister for having changed his decision. “He caught hold. I was talking to him and I just thanked him for that — it was a good chat. I felt like we needed to get to know each other. Naturally, he was just saying thank you for making good use of what I’ve made,” he said.
The United forward, who returns to the action of the Premier League when the Red Devils face Tottenham Hotspur on Friday, adding that he was grateful to the Prime Minister for voicing an opinion and sharing it with people. He also thanked him for being the voice for people who didn’t have the opportunity to speak out as much as they liked.
