Queen refused to come over for dinner

IMMEDIATELY after the death of Princess Diana in 1997, neither Prince Charles nor the Queen was prepared to speak publicly.

To help quell public anger, Blair eagerly stepped into the breach.

After consulting his spin-doctor, Alastair Campbell, he read out an emotional eulogy about the ‘People’s Princess’.

And he later claimed credit for rescuing the monarchy from embarrassment — by persuading the Queen to return to London, inspect the vast floral tributes outside Buckingham Palace and address the nation on TV. How did this all go down with the Royal Family? The truth is that their relations with Blair had been frosty from the outset, and did not improve.

By tradition, they had to welcome Britain’s Prime Minister each September for a weekend at Balmoral. After Blair’s visit that year, however, he broke with protocol by announcing that the monarchy intended to ‘change and modernise’.

Although the Queen was entitled to expect sound advice from her Prime Minister, he had failed to understand that it should remain secret. Afterwards, she never went out of her way to help him. The Blairs wanted her to come to Downing Street for dinner on the Prime Minister’s last night in office — but Buckingham Palace refused.

After he stepped down, the Queen’s unease turned to general suspicion. To the amazement of some, the Blairs were not invited to the wedding of William and Kate.

And, for the first time in her long reign, the Queen is said to have refused to award the Order of the Garter to a former Prime Minister. Others say it was declined.