David and Victoria Beckham are attending the state banquet this evening (Image: PA)
David and Victoria Beckham are among the 150 guests invited to a glittering state banquet at Buckingham Palace tonight.
The celebrity couple were invited because of their Qatari connections, with the former England football captain being an ambassador for the Qatar World Cup in 2022.
Mr Beckham was paid £10m to endorse the global showcase and came under significant criticism for his involvement.
He sat between Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Nasser Al-Khelaifi, a Qatari businessman who is president of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), a French football club where Beckham ended his career. Qatar Sports Investments, founded by the Amir in 2005, owns PSG.
Mrs Beckham sat apart from her husband – as is custom – and was sat next to Lord Levy and Lord Darzi.
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Their attendance tonight marks the first time Mr Beckham has attended a state banquet, though he has visited the Palace several times in the past.
In 2003 he received an OBE for services to football, collecting the honour from the late Queen Elizabeth at an investiture ceremony at the Palace.
He’s attended the royal residence more recently after becoming a charity ambassador for the King’s Foundation.
The former England captain has also attended several engagements with .
Over the years there have been calls for Mr Beckham to receive a knighthood, but he has yet to receive the honour.
David Beckham was invited due to his close ties with Qatar (Image: PA)
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Royal guests at tonight’s state banquet included the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
The King’s sister joined the top table and sat next to the Prime Minister.
The beautifully adorned tables in the Palace ballroom featured seasonal flowers including foliage from the Windsor Home Park and the Orchard Garden at the glasshouses in Windsor.
On the conclusion of the Banquet, the flowers are donated to Floral Angels, a charity the Queen is patron of that delivers the blooms to hospices, elderly care homes, shelters and other beneficiaries near its base in New Covent Graden Flower Market.
Guests were also treated to musical performances by the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the King’s Harpist, Mared Pugh-Evans.
They played a selection of traditional classic music, as well as covers from musicals Chicago, West Side Story and even a song from the Disney film Moana.