Prince William surprised Tesco shoppers this morning, December 5, after donning his red cap to help Big Issue vendor Dave Martin sell copies to members of the public.

The Prince of Wales joined Dave, a vendor he has known for 18 months since he first started selling Big Issues with him, outside the supermarket in Hammersmith, west London.

The pair happily posed for pictures with stunned onlookers, and according to a source William and Dave have even swapped Christmas cards.

An insider said: “He decided he wanted to go see Dave and swap Christmas cards and they sold The Big Issue together”, with William giving him a handwritten card.

The Prince has been passionate about campaigning to end homelessness ever since he was first taken to a shelter by his late mother, Princess Diana, when he was a child.

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Earlier this year William launched his Homewards project, which ambitiously aims to end homeless through locally-led organisations in six flagship locations across the country.

William said of the Royal Foundation-backed project: “Homewards aims to give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented by showing them the progress we can make when we collaborate.

“It’s a big task, but I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated, and I am very much looking forward to working with our six locations to make our ambition a reality.”

William has also taken to the streets before to sell the Big Issue, as in June 2022 he was spotted by an onlooker distributing copies in Rochester Row in Westminster.

Retired Met Police chief superintendent Matthew Gardner said his brother-in-law noticed it was the Prince as he passed by, with Mr Gardner sharing details of their meeting on his LinkedIn page.

He posted: “My brother-in-law was in London today and saw a celebrity, so he took a photo at a distance. The celebrity saw the ‘covert surveillance’ effort and crossed the road to investigate further.