It’s turned out to be one of the more comical gaffes that the government has made recently, but Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has somehow dug himself an even deeper hole after calling Man United striker Marcus Rashford, Daniel.
Invited onto Sky News on Wednesday morning to talk about various issues, Hancock praised the 22-year-old.
“I’ll tell you what happened, the Prime Minister talked to Daniel Rashford, he considered it and made his decision. I think it’s terrific,” Hancock said on Sky News, cited by the Daily Mirror.
That prompted a wave of amusing tweets in response, not least from Rashford himself.
Good to see @MattHancock finally giving credit to footballers and Daniel Rashford in particular pic.twitter.com/b3lcqsTcP7
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 17, 2020
Morning Daniel ?( @MarcusRashford )
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) June 17, 2020
I’ve been called much worse over the last couple of days ?
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) June 17, 2020
However, instead of letting the matter lie, Hancock then made it worse when trying to explain the mistake later in the morning on radio station, LBC.
“I don’t know, maybe I had Harry Potter on the mind,” he said, cited by the Daily Mirror.
“My seven-year-old listens to Harry Potter and reads Harry Potter avidly, including at 5.30am this morning when I got up to do this morning media round. So maybe I had Harry Potter on my mind.”
The merriment is in stark contrast to the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, with Hancock himself consistently in the firing line.
Rashford returns to his day job on Friday as Man United take on Tottenham Hotspur in their first game back after the resumption of the Premier League, and it’s imperative that the gaffe doesn’t overshadow all of the good work that he has done in the past few weeks.