Education Secretary ‘mixes up Marcus Rashford with black rugby player Maro Itoje’

Education minister Gavin Williamson reportedly claimed to have held a meeting over Zoom with Man United footballer Marcus Rashford – but actually met with a different black sports star, Maro Itoje.

Williamson made the slip up in an interview with the Evening Standard, where he discussed the future of his role as education minister. There, he weighed in on Rashford’s famed campaign for free school meals for all UK children, saying he had even partaken in a Zoom interview with the footballer.

He told the interviewer: “We met over Zoom and he seemed incredibly engaged, compassionate and charming but then he had to shoot off. I didn’t want to be the one that was holding him back from his training.”

@maroitoje / Instagram

Rather embarrassingly, however, Williamson’s team later clarified that he had met with rugby player Maro Itoje, who campaigned to bridge the ‘digital divide’ by providing pupils with equipment to access online learning from home in the pandemic.

A spokesman for Rashford quickly confirmed he had never had direct communication with Williamson, with Rashford himself taking to Twitter to mock the blunder.

“Accent could have been a giveaway,” the striker wrote, alongside a laughing emoji.

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy also took to Twitter to address the blunder, slamming it as ‘appalling.’

He wrote: “This is appalling. @GavinWilliamson what was it about @maroitoje that made you mistake him for @MarcusRashford?

“You must be the most ignorant, clueless and incapable Education Secretary in the UK’s history.”

Both Gavin Williamson and 10 Downing Street are yet to address the alleged mix up.