and the czech republic. the met office issues yellow warnings for snow and ice following storm bella with disruption likely — for parts of wales, north—west england, scotland and the whole of northern ireland. now on bbc news... marcus rashford: feeding britain's children following the footballer‘s journey this year to raise national awareness of the effects of child food poverty in the uk. i've not been here for ages. this is where it all began. we used to be able to go upstairs and get a cup of coffee and what have you. his painting is on the wall, that's incredible, isn't it? there's no way you would ever think that would have happened. it is like a dream come true, isn't it? he has worked hard to get to where he has got to now.

so have you. i know but i did what i had to do and any parent that wouldn't do that for their own child then there is a problem, isn't there? he is one of the most famous footballers of his generation. oh, that is a wonderful goal from a quite superb emerging manchester united talent. manchester united superstar. england international. a hometown hero. at the age ofjust 23, marcus rashford has the world at his feet. but he is worried by the millions of youngsters experiencing the same levels of hunger he faced as a child. i'd rather see myself starve than my kids. the stigma needs to disappear as quickly as possible really. prime minister, will children

go hungry this summer? rashford is now campaigning to end child food poverty in england. hello, everyone. can everyone hear me? it won't be easy. but for marcus rashford, this is personal. it brings tears to your eyes, doesn't it? you should never be ashamed of what you have gone through. you are the best footballer. meet marcus and his mum, mel. as a young single parent, mel worked round—the—clock in a bid to keep food on the table for the future star.

a table is to put things on. i didn't think he was going to be a footballer. i had to drop them off there, go to work and then come back, pick him up and come home. when i first started playing football i didn't know it was something you could do for an actual living. i wasn't at home most of the time, they had to be in on their own. i had three jobs and if i didn't do that ijust wouldn't have been able to cook a pot of food. sometimes it was really bad. i'd rather give the food to the kids then give it to myself. sometimes i didn't get anything to eat and they said have you had yours? i would say yeah but i didn't. sometimes we didn't have a loaf of bread in the house. it's embarrassing to say but we didn't. on the way we are living now, honestly i sit in my room sometimes and ijust cry. you just sit there crying on your own because you are thinking about where you have come from to where you are at now. it'sjust sad really, isn't it?

all them little struggles and sacrifices that you made it helps you appreciate everything ten times more. so i don't see it as a weakness because i think in sport you have to have something behind it that's pushing you. when you come from a place of struggle and a place of pain, a lot of the time it switches and it becomes your drive and motivation. one way in which the government could help those worst affected would be to extend the national voucher scheme. they mean children who can't go to school because of coronavirus restrictions still get free meals. we are announcing a further £63 million of local welfare assistance to be used by local authorities at their discretion to help the most vulnerable families.

footballer marcus rashford writes to mps... asking the government to rethink its... prime minster, will children go hungry this summer? this was at the beginning of everything. dear prime minister, my mum worked full—time earning minimum wage to make sure we always had a good evening meal on our table but it was not enough. the system was not built for families like mine to succeed, regardless of how hard my mum worked. as a family, we relied on breakfast clubs, free school meals and the kind donations of neighbours and coaches. food banks and soup kitchens were not alien to us. it is things that are personal to me and it's actually a bit out of character for me really to open up and speak about something so close to myself to the public.

but i definitely feel like it was necessary in order to get the messages across. he is doing a greatjob in trying to get the government to u—turn on that decision to stop the voucher going on during the summer. it can happen here if the politicians change the policy, let's see if it can get this. i listen to the story on the tv when he was talking about itand i rang him up, said you've got this, they have got to do the u—turn now have to listen to all of that because it was pretty sad. it's just crazy to think that this is all going on, we are into 2020 now and i don't believe it is something that should be happening. those words that he was saying are coming from the bottom of his heart. just over 2a hours after marcus's appealed to number ten... in the last few minutes the government has announced it is backing down... 1.3 million children will be able to claim... mother's...

i heard that he'd done it i thought, god, i'd better ring him! i talked to marcus rashford today and congratulated him on his campaign. i do think it is right that we should be looking after families of the neediest right now. i must have rung about 20 times i said we've cracked it! it was a mad few days, wasn't it? this is only going to be successful throughout the summer period and then we have bought ourselves an extra six weeks of time there to come and figure out what's next and how we keep taking steps forward because i don't want this to be the end of it because there is definitely more steps need to be taken. marcus wants to find out if he can help families facing child food poverty, so he sends a tweet to his 7.3 million followers asking for their stories. hi, marcus, i am a single working

mother with three daughters. for years i did struggle. the struggle is real, mate. even though i am back in work full time we have lost so much money through paying bills. until recently we have all worked but now we can't afford the transport to get our children to school. i'm a single mum with two children. i work full—time. at the end of the month when i pay the bills that's it, all the money is gone. it's what the community actually wants, they have no experience what some of the families have experienced and they are the voices i want to hear because they are the people i want to help. marcus is paying a surprise visit to some of the families who answered his appeal on social media.

oh, my goodness. boys. are you ok? yeah, i'm good. oh, my god! this reminds me of when i was a kid. these are the places that i would come to chill and you don't even realise that you spend all day here just messing about. my mum always comes to get me. yeah, it's like dragging you home. i've been grounded a few times for not coming home on time. it's been a difficult period for everyone but how is it affecting you guys? we are really grateful because i was really ill in march. i couldn't move out of my bed. they would come in and deliver food to my home. families are not speaking out. there is a stigma. because they look at it as who goes to a food bank? who goes to these places? they look down on it but when you were speaking about it

and saying you have been through it, that has given our family confidence to say ok he has been through it. it took me being homeless to know that you need to meet the right people at the right time to make it. are you trying to hurt me?! how do you feel aboutseeing your mum struggling? it's very upsetting see my mum upset sometimes and thinking how is she going to give us this meal today. what is going to happen today or tomorrow and feel how can i help? so i tried to do things that help the community, i can clean your windows for £3 or something like that. or take them to school for this amount of money and then i will try and give it to my mum. do you do the off your own back? yeah.

for me it's refreshing foot to hear you say things like that and never feel that anyone is looking down on you for doing things like that because they don't know what it feels like to have to survive. because when you have to survive you do whatever you have to do. and this conversation is really good for me because these moments just give me more understanding of people's situation. we really appreciate it. it has been refreshing and am very happy. i'm happy too! you are saying all the right things. you know how to spell your name? marcus rashford is a man on a mission. the england footballer has set up a special task force. in a letter to mps the football acknowledge that the food voucher scheme have positively impacted millions of children's lives but that it was only ever

going to support the issue in the short term. we are looking all those policy suggestions he has put forward in his letter to make sure that they do deliver on a shared objective which is alleviating the kind of poverty that he talks about. hello, everyone. can everybody hear me? marcus knows there has to be a long—term solution. he has invited representatives from the uk's largest supermarkets and food banks on to assume call. whatever you think about universal credit, that on its own is not going to be able to cope. with the help of you guys we can come together and make massive changes and i really appreciate the help that you are giving me. it should never be normal for somebody to feel how i felt. when you get to the position i'm in now, ifeel like if they are in need and they don't have anybody really fighting for them then i should be the one that does it really.

we're on way to my old school and we are going to have conversations with one of the staff members that used to work in the breakfast club. hello! i just wanted to ask you some questions about how it's changed basically from when you remember i was here. has it got more difficult? it has got difficult. we tend to do a lot more supporting families with food. it can be food, housing, anything we deal with. the way i see, if they are in need of free school meals when in school then when they go home they still need it. they still need a hot meal. so i think that is probably the next step. it is a stigma that they've found

sometimes and they say no, i don't need anything and it is getting past that. yeah, the stigma needs to disappear as quickly as possible. it does. i've never understood it but the quicker it goes... iagree. because some families might be working, and then it has affected them that way and then they realise that actually i need help. she said it has got worse and i know there are definitely more students are now than when i was there. and ultimately that means for her because she is so passionate about it is there are more families that she has to help. it is definitely disheartening but the main thing is now you can't look back, you have to look forward. footballer marcus rashford successfully campaigned for more thani million pupils to receive free school meals over the country. he becomes an mbe for services to vulnerable children. in my eyes a lot

of the work is my mum my mum's work. never mind an mbe, even being a football player, itjust wouldn't have been very likely if i didn't have somebody like her behind me. nice. whilst marcus waits for commitment from the government, another influential person has been in touch. acclaimed actor emma thompson is also campaigning to end child food poverty. hello, marcus. we have to stay like this. in april 2019 emma went to downing street to deliver a report on poverty written from children's perspectives, outlining recommendations for change. hey, you lot. hello. would you like me to introduce you?

i think we know him very well. so the question is for me now what we do now? where do we go from where we are? food commission to see how many people it is affecting and to show the mps and everybody in the uk that this is a real thing and that people are suffering from it, especially young people. that is a massive one. if they we put themselves in the environment and they have seen what is actually happening then we wouldn't even have to speak about any of this. on your twitter you said it's not the parents's fault that they can't feed their child because no parent doesn't want to feed their child. that needs to be heard by more adults and we could be the ones to tell them to stop stigmatising people. when the disbelief goes and the denial goes, then that hopefully will take some of the shame and stigma away. we have all gone through this, we have all seen people go through this. and when we are showing that we are going doing what we're doing and having people like you, emma, new marcus, show

the support that we need. it is the government's responsibility to ensure that children do not go hungry. they don't stop being hungryjust because the school bell rings for the end of term. free school meals have only ever been intended to provide support during term time periods while children are engaging in activity learning. i urge the government to set out long—term plan to tackle child food poverty. i do not believe in nationalising children. instead, we need to get back to the idea of taking responsibility.

the noes have it. the people are speaking about it have had a life where there parents are struggling like they can literally afford to buy food and afford to pay bills and that's it. because i doubt that they have, the way they speak about, is so insensitive and for me it is just a lack of understanding. basically, you have had to go through it to understand it. we understand it clearly because we have been through it. the next step is for the government to just sit down and try and gain a proper understanding of the people that we are actually helping on what they go through day to day because they don't quite understand

the effect it has on people's lives and it is because they are not seen it first—hand. so once they do see it and they see how people have to live their lives day to day and you can see the pain in their eyes. we have to prioritise. we do what we do, don't we, to get by. i would see myself starve instead of my kids. we eat a lot less nowadays to make sure we have the food for the kids. we live off one meal a day. this is what i have got left to last me till payday. i'm really anxious because unlike have i got enough that is going to last until i get that payment of the last day of the month when i can go and do my shopping. we tried not to let them realise what's going on because the stigma that comes with it. in some ways i feel embarrassed

about having to do this but it is to ensure my son is eating properly. i know i try my best normally but during half term is any holidays it is always difficult. the stigma is still there but is how you deal with it as a person. the end of the day if you have got no other choice than let them think and say they want, if we need to go and get food from elsewhere because we can't provide for the kids at least we are providing for the kids, no matter where it comes from. we could just make one little difference, make one child go to bed full. that they go to bed with the belly full of knowing other people care. i am often told us a lot because i keep a lot of treats behind for the kids. but actually, seeing... knowing that child is going to go with a little smile, that actually there are people out

there that do care and actually we do care. we do. during lockdown, marcus and his mum, mel, worked with the food charity fair share. they raised £20 million, enough to feed more than 3 million children throughout the uk. today, they are visiting their local depot in manchester. hi, there. hello, mr rashford. welcome to fareshare greater manchester. we have got some ppe to share with you. the mayor of manchester andy burnham is attending. some of the comments were hard to listen to in the debate, i bet they were for you. but that tells you why the campaign is needed because some people still need educating, some people in parliament so need educating. one thing it has done is raise more awareness anyway.

more and more people are learning about it. we have to keep the momentum now. when it's finished, i will vacate the mayor of greater manchester, straight in! honestly, on behalf of everyone, we are so proud of you. all of us are so proud of you. but there is some good news. fareshare is expanding to provide more food for children in need and then naming their new depot after marcus's mum, mel. start your own trophy cabinet! i'm overwhelmed and i don't what to say. all i can say is thank you. for us and my mum especially, we were concentrated so much on the people that we were trying to help, everything elsejust sort of goes over our heads. you need to grow a little bit! 1 million people have signed

footballer marcus rashford's petition to extend free school meal vouchers to children during holiday. 1 million people during the week. fantastic. following the government's recent announcement that they're not going to extend free school lunches during half term we know someone... the great british public are now getting behind marcus and in a big way. this week we will be giving out free school lunches to any child who needs it. if you are struggling... we will do our best... here at the gainsborough trinity foundation... at this great yarmouth pub... morley and west yorkshire... that is a picture for many across the country to see. so many people do off their own backs all over the country, for me it was just a really proud moment.

it has been the most challenging year for everyone around the country and i think the least that children deserve as a christmas dinner this year. manchester united now lead 2—1. it is early november and marcus arrives home from a big game to a long—awaited phone call from the prime minister. yeah, i have literallyjust got back now from the game. i got an assist today. no goal but we won the game so that's good. yeah, yeah, yeah. can you just say that again please? the government is to provide free meals to disadvantaged children in england during the christmas holidays part of a package of measures costing

nearly £400 million. an existing programme which provides activities and food in the school holidays will be extended across england for the whole of new next year. that would be the perfect situation for me and we ask for that and because of that we will be able to help families in a better way. the significant climb—down comes after a campaign led by the manchester united footballer marcus rashford. thank you very much and on behalf of the families as well that you are helping ijust want to say a big thank you from them as well because they really appreciate it. thank you very much. speak to you soon. bye. he said the u—turn came in a phone call from the prime minister. a good conversation, good outcome. i think now we have managed, well, we finally managed to be on the same page. the main thing for me is that it is happening and families are going to be a lot better off.

come on. she rang me about a week ago and she was telling me don't give up because it is something that we all believe in and we have all experienced at the end of the day and we don't want other people to have to experience it. so that was, you were the last person i spoke to about that. i rang him a week ago to say they're going to change. something that i knew that they had to take place, he had a petition out there with over a million signatures and i couldn't say no after all that. i'm happy that we have got to this stage but in my mind i can't stop thinking about what the bigger picture looks like. so for me i'm still a long way from sort of working towards that. so i'm happy for this moment but i just look ahead to what can we do now. as marcus was growing up we have

always told him a couple of words and that is never forget where you have come from. and that is one thing i would like to tell the whole world is never forgotten where he is come from where a lot of people are coming from now, the free school meals and all that. it is good to get out there that he has never forgotten that. he's actually helping the world because of where he has come from. well done, marcus. thank you. this hello. storm bella has moved away and the winds continue to use through the re st of winds continue to use through the rest of sunday but we still have a numberof rest of sunday but we still have a number of flood warnings in place and met office warnings for snow and ice and all the details are on our website. behind the rain plenty of showers pushing in from the west, many of which have been bringing

snow, in parts of scotland, wintry showers into the north of england overnight into parts of wales, northern ireland, later in the night into parts of central southern england as well, a mixture of ring sleet and snow and with the clear skies, there will be a frost and patchy fog in places and many temperatures will be at or below freezing, perhaps as much as minus eight celsius across the glens of scotland. a messy day tomorrow, sunny spells, further wintry showers could bring a longer spell of snow through central and southern england for a time through central and southern england fora time and through central and southern england for a time and further wintry showers started to fade into the eastern and north—eastern coast as we head through the afternoon. it is a cold feeling day for some, temperatures will not get much above freezing. goodbye.

it this is bbc news — these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. borisjohnson promises big changes following his brexit trade deal, as his chancellor rishi sunak says the deal brings reassurance to those worried about the impact on businesses. for those who were anxious about the economic implications of leaving, they should be enormously reassured by the comprehensive nature of this free—trade agreement ensuring tariff—free, quota—free access for british businesses to the european market. the rollout of the pfizer—biontech covid vaccine begins for millions of people across the eu, starting with italy and the czech republic. storm bella continues to bring heavy rain and high winds. more than 1,700 customers remain without electricity in south—west england and wales.