Boris Johnson is facing more humiliation at the hands of Marcus Rashford after refusing for a second time to heed the player's plea for help to ensure impoverished children are properly fed.
Within a few hours of Rashford launching a petition, a No 10 spokesman said it was 'not for schools to regularly provide food to pupils during the school holidays'. But the Manchester United striker, 22, responded immediately via Twitter: 'Merry Christmas kids... this is not going away anytime soon and neither am I.'
Rashford has smashed through the 100,000 signatures needed on his petition to trigger a debate on child food poverty in Parliament, where Sportsmail understands he can expect strong cross-party support.