William joins Big Issue seller in London again

The Prince of Wales has for the second successive year joined Big Issue seller Dave Martin at his pitch in London.

William was pictured on social media wearing a Big Issue tabard, official identification and matching baseball cap with his arm around Mr Martin in Hammersmith.

A message on the prince’s official account on X, formerly known as Twitter, read: “Great to be back with Dave, selling the latest edition of the @BigIssue once again!”

The pair have stayed in contact since meeting last year and on Tuesday morning the future king helped Mr Martin with sales and they exchanged Christmas cards, as they did last year.

Mr Martin said: “It was very nice to see Prince William again. It was surreal but he was so friendly. He was concerned about me and about the homeless people.

“There were good vibes from everyone – it’s been a great day.”

Earlier this year, William launched his Homewards project to help eradicate homelessness in the UK.

He has set his sights on making rough sleeping, sofa surfing and other forms of temporary accommodation a thing of the past as he tries to emulate Finland, where the problem has been virtually eradicated.

The five-year project will initially focus on six locations where local businesses, organisations and individuals will be encouraged to join forces and develop action plans to tackle homelessness with up to £500,000 in funding.

Mr Martin was invited to the project’s launch event in the summer and approved of the initiative, saying at the time: “I think it’s really personal to him.”

Lord John Bird, founder of The Big Issue, said: “We are very lucky to have the Prince of Wales throwing his support our way yet again.

“It’s grand to have this huge level of awareness that HRH brings, especially at a time when thousands of our vendors are facing the crushing pressures of escalating costs and are working hard, often out in terrible weather conditions.

“Please do support your local vendor and buy a copy of the magazine.”