A thread on why @MarcusRashford is the Tories' worst nightmare:

He has a simple message:

- Children living in poverty are going without food;
- They rely heavily on schools for at least one decent meal a day;
- When schools are closed, they literally go hungry.

He has a simple mission:

- Don't allow children to go hungry.

Politicians love complicating the issue. They love distracting from the point & going off on tangents. That's why they rarely give straight answers in interviews.

The simplicity of Rashford's message & mission is problematic for the Tories because it's hard to distract from it.

Rashford knows what he's talking about. He has lived around poverty. He was a recipient of free school meals as a child. He knows how important they are to a child's development.

That gives his message an integrity and honesty that is alien to the Tories.

Rashford is a self-made man and he is independently rich. So the Tories' usual claim of 'jealousy' doesn't work. He is not jealous of people with money - he just wants to stop children going hungry.

He clearly isn't doing it for attention or celebrity. He is famous and adored around the world for his day job. He doesn't *need* to get involved in any cause for personal gain.

He clearly isn't 'virtue-signalling'. Even if you give such a reductive term any credence, there are *far* easier ways of gaining praise for charitable acts. He could become the benign ambassador of a charity, but instead identified a serious problem and is trying to solve it.

He is brave. He knows that he is irritating and embarrassing a lot of very powerful people. He knows he is making himself a target. He has already faced slurs and backlashes. He doesn't care. He just wants to stop children going hungry.

He is apolitical. Tories have tried to change the narrative from 'Tories vs Starving kids' or 'Tories vs Rashford' to 'Tories vs Labour'. They claim things were bad under a Labour government too (a decade ago).

Rashford doesn't care. He has no reason to defend the Labour Party.

He is not a politician. The Tories are used to fighting their political enemies on the political battlefield. That means using all their friendly media mouthpieces and infrastructure.

Rashford is outside of the Westminster bubble. It doesn't matter what politicos think of him.

He can't be bought off. He won one battle during the summer when the Tories were forced into a u-turn. He was awarded an MBE. The Tories are used to people being appeased, winning a concession and fucking off.

Rashford doesn't care. He just wants to stop children going hungry.

Rashford is widely recognised as a lovely person and a working-class hero. So much so that football fans who detest his club actually love him. That is incredibly powerful - and hugely dangerous to the Tories.

They are used to divide and conquer. That isn't working this time.

Rashford is for real. When he speaks about his mission, he does so with passion, sincerely & eloquence. Plus he has a strong, supportive team around him.

What is more, he has transcended rivalries, political allegiances and his sport with a message so pure it can't be ignored.