The striker is the most talked about name in British politics at present but that didn’t stop a senior official getting his name wrong
UK health secretary Matt Hancock has been mocked by the football world after referring to Manchester United‘s Marcus Rashford as ‘Daniel’ in an interview following the government’s U-turn regarding free meals for vulnerable children.
Rashford recently penned an open letter to the British parliament in which he begged the government to extend a scheme that provides food vouchers for approximately 1.3 million disadvantaged children across the country.
At first, the Department of Education stated that the scheme would not run over the summer, but Rashford’s plea gained enough popularity for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to state on Tuesday that the government would in fact continue to help those in need.
With that, Rashford firmly cemented himself as the most talked about Premier League footballer amongst politicians, including Hancock.
Hancock’s name is well known to players in England‘s top flight too, with the health secretary having called for top-earning athletes to “do their bit” for the country after the UK began to announce its plans for tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite all of that, however, Hancock still managed to refer to Rashford as ‘Daniel’ in an interview with Sky News on Wednesday.
“Righty-ho. Well I’ll tell you what happened, the Prime Minister talked to Daniel Rashford, he considered it and made his decision,” he said.
“I think it’s terrific, I’m in favour of making sure we get as much support as possible for people in difficult circumstances.
“I think that Marcus Rashford has done a great thing in the campaigning he’s done.”
Rashford responded to a tweet from Gary Lineker by saying he had been called ‘much worse’ in recent days on the back of his campaign.
I’ve been called much worse over the last couple of days 🤣
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) June 17, 2020
Ex-England star Lineker also wrote: “Really looking forward to watching Richard Sterling, Colin De Bruyne, Danny Luiz and Co. tonight.”
Really looking forward to watching Richard sterling, Colin De Bruyne, Danny Luiz and co. tonight.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 17, 2020
Elsewhere, fellow Red Devil Gary Neville simply wished Rashford a good day, tweeting: “Morning Daniel”.
Morning Daniel 😂( @MarcusRashford )
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) June 17, 2020
The healthy secretary subsequently tweeted to acknowledge the name mix-up, writing: “Too early. But in all seriousness Marcus you’re a credit to the nation.”
As I said yesterday this was never about politics or me. The PM didn’t need to u-turn the decision but I’m thankful he did. I asked you to listen and you did that so on behalf of all mums likes mine, dads and carers that are struggling across the country, thank you.
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) June 17, 2020
Rashford also responded to that comment, replying: “As I said yesterday this was never about politics or me. The PM didn’t need to u-turn the decision but I’m thankful he did. I asked you to listen and you did that so on behalf of all mums likes mine, dads and carers that are struggling across the country, thank you.”
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