The comedian Joe Lycett has raised more than £60,000 for the homelessness charity Crisis after the Home Secretary described rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice”.
Lycett launched his campaign on Saturday after the Financial Times reported that Suella Braverman wanted to restrict the use of tents by people sleeping rough and to fine charities that supplied them.
She said: “We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.”
Lycett reacted to Braverman’s comments on Instagram, arguing that lifestyle choices were “things such as cargo pants, fishing, and decorating your bathroom with a bowl of pot pourri”.
The post included a link to the fundraiser for Crisis.
The comedian also tweeted a reminder to donors that they should add Gift Aid to ensure “Suella’s government have to give an additional 25 per cent lol”.
After the initial £50,000 goal was reached Lycett posted: “A huge thank you to everyone who donated for their generosity.
“Of course my main thanks must go to Suella: without your lifestyle choice, of being callous and cruel towards the most vulnerable people in society, none of this would’ve happened.”
Braverman’s proposal to fine charities that supply tents to homeless people did not appear to make it into the raft of new legislation announced by the government in the King’s Speech today.