Saturday 9th Oct.2021: Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester on Thursday evening.
Rashford, 23, became the university's youngest recipient of an honorary award at a special ceremony at his club's Old Trafford stadium on Thursday.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said the situation many now found themselves in "reminds me of... when I was younger".
The England forward added: "You've got to decide between - are you going to eat or are you going to be warm in the house?
"These are decisions that you don't want people to go through, never mind children.
"And there's other stuff, the price of fuel and electricity and there's actually a shortage of food at the moment... as some of the food banks I work with are experiencing.
"So there's other things that people are worrying about and, if we can take one less stress off them, it's important."
Mr Rashford said receiving the honorary doctorate was "bittersweet" since it came as "millions of families across the UK lost a lifeline and a means of staying afloat".
The £20-a-week increase to universal credit, which was brought in to support those on low incomes during the pandemic, was withdrawn on Tuesday.
He urged MPs to meet those who had been receiving the increased benefit.
"It's time that representatives got out into communities like mine," he said. "It's time they saw first-hand the true measure of struggle.
"Covid-19 can no longer be used as an excuse."
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast: "If you want to carry on with that uplift you need to find £6bn from somewhere.
"Inevitably that means taxing people on their PAYE, maybe putting the cost of fuel up even more, even though it's at record levels or something else.
"Nothing is free when you're making these decisions."
In the same vein Manchester United's former manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who was previously honoured by the university, joined Mr Rashford's family and friends at the ceremony said the club was "so proud".
"He is a young man who embodies everything which this club stands for," she said.
"He is humble, he is passionate and he is driven to succeed in everything he does."
A Downing Street spokesperson said the universal credit top-up was always a "temporary measure, designed to help claimants through the toughest stages of the pandemic".
"But we are now seeing our economy starting to bounce back so our focus is rightly on helping people back into high-quality, well-paid jobs," they said.
