Do we like Marcus Rashford?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Years of campaigning for hungry kids and no harmful words found, with one driving ban and a thin record on LGBTQ+ topics holding him off a 9.
Rashford is the Manchester footballer who turned into the country's most effective campaigner on child hunger. In 2020 he pushed the UK government into a U-turn on free meals for vulnerable kids over the holidays in England. He then set up a child food poverty taskforce with big supermarkets and food brands, and in 2021 he collected an MBE for it at Windsor Castle.
The giving is real money, not just hashtags. He became the youngest person to top the Sunday Times Giving List, having raised about £20m for his campaigning. When he took the MBE he said he would keep at it while he was still playing, and hoped the problem could be eradicated.
His one proper brush with the law was a dumb one. In December 2023 he was caught doing 104mph in a Rolls-Royce on the M60 in Manchester. He admitted the offence through the Single Justice Procedure and in July 2024 was banned from driving for six months and fined £1,666. It reads as a rich bloke's lapse, not a pattern.
The football soap has been messier than the personal stuff. He fell out of favour under Ruben Amorim in December 2024 and spent the next 18 months on loan at Villa and then Barcelona. When he was recalled by England in May 2026, an Instagram post thanked his coaches and clubs but skipped United, and fans were cross. He followed up with “I’m a MU supporter, and that remains.”
On the harm test, we looked for what he has said and done about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, health and the planet, and nothing harmful turned up. Honestly, his public record on LGBTQ+ issues is thin either way, so this is a pass on what's there rather than a loud ally badge. He has also been on the receiving end of hate: a Real Oviedo fan was convicted in April 2026 over racist abuse aimed at him at a match in September 2025, and got nine months in prison.
The recent chapter is a comeback. Rashford was back in pre-season training at United, and Carrick said he looked fit, sharp and strong. At the World Cup he made his first start of the tournament against Panama, in a 2-0 win that put England top of their group.