Joe Lycett 'shreds' £10k in David Beckham Qatar protest

Comedian Joe Lycett has appeared to shred £10,000 of his own money in a protest against David Beckham’s role as an ambassador for the Qatar World Cup.

Lycett livestreamed himself destroying the cash on Sunday after the footballer did not to respond to his ultimatum to drop the job in support of LGBT people.

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries was among those to criticise Lycett, and called the move a publicity stunt.

Beckham has not publicly responded to Lycett.

The stunt, which took place on the same day the controversial World Cup begins, has attracted a mixed reaction, with some suggesting Lycett should have instead donated the money to a charitable cause.

Hours before the livestream, Nadine Dorries tweeted: “Shredding £10k will earn Joe Lycett far more than it will cost him and is in effect a paid-for publicity stunt which has worked.”

She added that “no-one will think any worse of him now if he changes his mind at the last minute and donates it to a homeless shelter in time for Christmas”.

Martyn Butler, one of the founders of HIV charity The Terrence Higgins Trust, replied to Lycett’s original announcement with a picture of the charity’s branded donation buckets.

“Well done Joe,” he wrote. “However, may I point you in the direction of a perfectly brilliant fully automated unused blackmail money shredder device.”

Others defended Lycett, arguing that he had succeeded in gaining more than £10,000 worth of publicity for the LGBT cause.

“I don’t understand how so many people don’t get the economics of this,” tweeted one user. “If Joe had taken out massive billboards to plug his message, few would’ve considered it a waste of money, and it would’ve cost more.”

The Birmingham-born comic shared a video of the stunt on Twitter, captioning it “a platform for progress”.

In the clip, he can be seen placing wads of what appeared to be cash into an industrial shredder while wearing a rainbow tulle outfit, but it was not clear whether the banknotes were genuine.

Lycett set the former England footballer a deadline of midday on 20 November to take action after it was reported Beckham had signed a £10m deal with the Fifa World Cup hosts.

The comedian said he would donate £10,000 of his own money to LGBT charities if Mr Beckham ended the sponsorship deal before the tournament started.

If he did not, Lycett said he would livestream himself shredding the money along with Beckham’s “status as gay icon”.

After Lycett first announced his plans, Beckham’s management declined to comment.

Prior to the stunt, Lycett had shared a video message directed at Beckham in which he commended the footballer for always talking about “the power of football as a force for good”, but told viewers that Qatar was “one of the worst places in the world to be gay”.

Qatar has been thrust into the spotlight since it was announced as the host nation for the competition 12 years ago, with critics citing a string of human rights abuses.

Some LGBT fans have boycotted the cup over Qatar’s treatment of gay people, as homosexuality is illegal in the country and is punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Lycett has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.