Marcus Rashford has revealed that Boris Johnson was ‘moved’ to keep free school meals for children during the summer after watching the Manchester United striker’s personal plea to the Government.
Rashford has been instrumental in urging MPs to reconsider after it was initially decided that free school meal vouchers in England would not be awarded outside of term time.
On Tuesday it was announced that the decision would be reversed, ensuring that around 1.3 million children in England will benefit this summer.
The Prime Minster also personally thanked Rashford during a phone call on Tuesday and revealed that he was only made aware of the situation through the 22-year-old’s campaign.
Asked if he was surprised by the Government’s U-turn, Rashford told BBC Breakfast: ‘Yeah, I was obviously shocked. It’s a big decision for someone to make.
‘I’m just grateful that the Prime Minister did change his decision and he understood and I spoke to him earlier on today [Tuesday] and just thanked him for that.
‘It was a nice conversation to have with him and just that we understood each other.’
Asked what was said during the conversation with the Prime Minister, Rashford said: ‘He was just obviously saying thank you for using what I’ve sort of built in a positive manner.
‘We were just thanking each other really because he didn’t have to do what he done and neither did I.
‘He was just grateful that someone had an opinion and just shared it with people and just been that voice for people that didn’t really have the platform to speak out as much as they would like to.’
Rashford also revealed that Johnson was compelled to reconsider his decision after watching a video of the United striker being interviewed about the campaign last week.
‘Yeah, he mentioned that on the phone and he just said that’s what sort of moved him really because he probably understood it a little bit more, like hearing it from someone rather than just reading it all or hearing about it,’ Rashford said.
‘So I think that was obviously a key factor in him changing his decision.’
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