The Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey has come in for huge criticism this morning after a ‘tone deaf’ response to Marcus Rashford’s Free School Meals campaign.
Manchester United and England player, Rashford, has been widely praised for his work. He released a hugely personal two-page letter to MPs about his own experience, calling on them to continue giving free school meals (vouchers worth £15 a week) to children throughout the summer holidays.
Yesterday the government confirmed the scheme would still end when the school term ends in July, saying, ‘The PM will respond to Marcus Rashford’s letter as soon as he can – he has been using his profile in a positive way to highlight some very important issues.’
However, Rashford this morning refused to stop campaigning, tweeting again and urging the government to #MakeTheUTurn. As part of an emotional thread of Tweets, he urged people to put themselves in the position of ‘200,000 children across the country this morning waking up to empty shelving’.
Journalist Paul Waugh Retweeted the thread, with Marcus’ first post, ‘When you wake up this morning and run your shower, take a second to think about parents who have had their water turned off during lockdown #maketheuturn.’
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Therese Coffey decided – to literally NO-ONE’S UNDERSTANDING – and decide that this, yes this, was the way she wanted to interact with the nationally popular campaign: ‘Water cannot be disconnected though.’
(Side note: There’s really something about the ‘though’ that makes this tweet the absolute worst, sin’t there?)
The Tweet, currently has more than 8,000 responses, most of them unprintable – you can check them out yourself.
Marcus, who has been fantastic throughout, tweeted back calmly: ‘I’m concerned this is the only tweet of mine you acknowledged. Please, put rivalries aside for a second, and make a difference #maketheuturn.’
The rest of the internet, and country, though, wasn’t as level-headed and decided to fight for Marcus instead.
The charge was led by GMB presenter Piers Morgan, who said: ‘People wonder why we shout at these people. I would probably shout at her right now, if she was on, Therese Coffey - wouldn’t you?
‘That’s her response. One line. Unbelievable. The tone-deafness of that response just about epitomises this government.
‘Heartless. Utterly heartless. Devoid of empathy. Devoid of any ability to see through their own pathetic job saving nonsense.
‘Therese Coffey, shame on you.’
Speaking on This Morning about the issue, Phillip Schofield added his fury saying: ‘What the hell kind of reaction is that?’
Therese decided to Tweet SIX more times, defending the government’s record on poverty during coronavirus, before finally tweeting in reply to Rashford. ‘We will continue to support the economy and help all of us get through this.’
At the time of writing Therese hadn’t apologised for her remarks, or the calls in her mentions for her to Make The U Turn – or resign.
With her Twitter bio stating: ‘Please don't expect Twitter reply,’ we won’t hold our breath.
READ MORE: Marcus Rashford's Powerful Plea To MPs To Stop Millions Of Children From Going Hungry This Summer
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