PETER Tatchell has accused the Foreign Secretary of being Qatar’s “PR man” ahead of the World Cup.

Mr Tatchell, who was held in Qatar last week after protesting there, hit out at comments made by James Cleverly last week.

In an interview with GB News, Mr Tatchell said: “I was held for 49 minutes. I was not allowed to leave. I was threatened that I could not leave and would face dire consequences if I attempted to leave. It was only after 49 minutes that I was allowed to go on my way. I was held on the pavement there for all that time. But it’s not really about me. This is about the people of Qatar, whose human rights are being violated daily by a dictatorship. The idea that we should show respect that football fans should show respect for a police state. This is absolutely profoundly shocking coming from a government minister.

“And what was truly shocking is he (Mr Cleverly) was suggesting in particular that LGBT plus fans should compromise their sexuality to appease a dictatorship. But he never said a single word in that statement criticising Qatar’s gross abuse of LGBT plus people, or women or migrant workers. So he was like really whether by intent or default, or just share clumsiness, he was actually doing PR for the Qatari regime.”

The Foreign Secretary was last week accused of being “shockingly tone deaf” after he suggested that gay football fans travelling to the Qatar World Cup should “compromise” to stay safe.Mr Cleverly urged fans to be “respectful of the host nation”, where homosexuality is illegal, and said that “a little bit of flex and compromise” would mean football fans would stay out of trouble. He said Qatari officials “want to make sure that football fans are safe, secure and enjoy themselves, and they know that that means they are going to have to make some compromises in terms of what is an Islamic country with a very different set of cultural norms to our own.”