The COVID Diaries – 80 16th June
Footballer Marcus Rashford has forced Boris Johnson into an embarrassing U-turn over providing food vouchers for some of England’s poorest families over the summer school holidays. A campaign launched by the footballer was plunging the government into another crisis.
The Prime Minister made the remarkable claim that he had only become aware of Rashford’s interest in the issue earlier in the day.
Yet 24 hours before, a government spokesperson had rejected the footballer’s plea for it to keep paying for the £15-a-week vouchers over the summer, and ministers had been sent out to defend the government’s position. But with Conservative MPs threatening to rebel against the government, Downing Street retreated and announced a new £120m “covid summer food fund” for 1.3 million pupils in England.