UK tabloids are abuzz with John Key's apparent quip about England's glamorous ex-football captain David Beckham.

The Prime Minister reportedly insulted the world's most famous soccer player when he told a group of Dunedin students that while Beckham was a nice man, he was also "as thick as bat s***".

He made the remark yesterday when speaking to a group of Dunedin high school students, Radio New Zealand reported.



He told the students that his son Max had spent 45 minutes with the LA Galaxy star when he visited New Zealand in 2008.



Beckham was handsome, a nice guy, but was also as "thick as bat s***", he reportedly told the students.



British tabloids were quick to pick up on Key's comment.



The Mirror reported that the Prime Minister made the comment when visiting St Hilda's Collegiate School, a Christian girls' boarding school.



Key tweeted a picture on Thursday of himself talking to St Hilda's Collegiate students.



Neither the school nor Key could be reached for comment.



Beckham's agent refused to comment but told The Mirror that if the remark was true then it was a "pathetic" insult.



"For someone supposedly thick, David has done pretty well to have become one of the world's most successful footballers and to be part of the bid to bring the Olympics to London.



"That doesn't sound like someone thick to me."



The Sun, which also picked up on the story, said Beckham's intelligence had been called into question numerous times in the past.



He famously said of his first child: "We're definitely going to get Brooklyn christened but we don't know into which religion."



His wife, former Spice Girls and fashion designer Victoria Beckham, reportedly told him during a 2000 television documentary: "You make yourself sound stupid and you're not."