Rashford urges government to keep the £20-a-week Universal Credit uplift.

Manchester United footballer turned campaigner, Marcus Rashford, has added his voice to the campaign to keep the £20-a-week Universal Credit uplift. 

Rashford, 23, has warned that “Instead of removing vital support, we should be focusing on developing a long-term roadmap out of this child hunger pandemic”. He added: “On October 6, millions lose a lifeline. It’s a move that Child Poverty Action Group says will raise child poverty to one in three”.

Last year, Rashford famously forced Johnson and his government into a u-turn on free school meals. In the campaign, Rashford drew upon his experience of going hungry as a child and the hardships that his mother went through to put food on the table during his youth.

Rashford has since more fully committed himself to campaigning and social activism, particularly along the lines of child food poverty. 

At the beginning of September, the footballer launched the “#WriteNow campaign to End Child Food Poverty” with Sustain and the Children’s Food Campaign. 

Speaking at the launch of the campaign, Rashford said: “Whilst we’ve come a long way in the last 20 months, placing the issue of child food poverty at the forefront, devastatingly, the issue is getting worse not better”.