Top Marcus at uni
Honorary doctorate for star’s food fight
CAMPAIGNING football star Marcus Rashford will become the youngest person to receive an honorary doctorate from his city’s university.
The 22-year-old Manchester United and England forward is being rewarded for his work in fighting against child poverty. He follows in the footsteps of club greats Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton in earning the prestigious accolade. Last month, he forced a
Government U-turn after he wrote an open letter to MPs asking for the reversal of a decision not to award free school meal vouchers to vulnerable children outside term time.
The Wythenshawe-born striker said his family relied on free school meals when he was growing up.
During the coronavirus pandemic, he also teamed up with poverty and food waste charity FareShare to help raise £20million, which meant four million meals are distributed to vulnerable people weekly.
Marcus said: “It’s a proud day for myself and my family. We still have a long way to go in the fight to combat child poverty but receiving recognition from your city means a lot.” President and vicechancellor of the University of Manchester, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, said: “Marcus is an extraordinary young man with an extraordinary talent and drive that stretches well beyond the football field.” Marcus will receive the doctorate later this summer.
Lib Dems’ acting leader Sir Ed Davey at Prime Minister’s Questions on the need for an inquiry.
The PM said: “I don’t believe that now, in the middle of combating a pandemic, is the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry.
“But, of course, we will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future and certainly we’ll have an independent inquiry into what happened.”
No10 refused to give further details on timing, saying it would be “set out in due course”. Relatives who have lost loved ones said the vague commitment was a “long way” from what is needed. The Covid Families for Justice campaign said: “We’ve been asking the PM to meet us for over a month but have been met with silence. It’s disappointing. “If he listened to our concerns he’d understand the many
Keir Starmer urgent lessons that need to be learned now.” The group, who met Labour leader Keir Starmer yesterday, condemned Mr Johnson for failing to offer his condolences.
An independent inquiry could have legal powers to compel witnesses and limit government control. Mr Johnson backed a similar probe after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The PM was also challenged yesterday on preparations for a second spike of the deadly virus after a report commissioned by government scientists warned that there could be 120,000 hospital deaths in a “reasonable worst-case scenario”.
Mr Johnson only said he was “aware of the report” when Mr Starmer asked if he had actually