PM gives up funeral place to let more family attend

BORIS JOHNSON will turn down a place at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral next Saturday so that another Royal Family member can go instead.

Only 30 people can attend due to Covid restrictions, and Downing Street said last night: ‘The Prime Minister has throughout wanted to act in accordance with what is best for the Royal Household, and so to allow for as many family members as possible he will not be attending the funeral on Saturday.’

Lockdown restrictions mean that the Queen will be limited to inviting her children, grandchildren and other close family to the funeral at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, as well as the officiating clergy.

Mr Johnson’s move contrasts with the often undignified bunfight that has broken out over previous Royal funerals.

In the run-up to Princess Diana’s burial in 1997, the

Duke of Edinburgh reportedly told Tony Blair’s aides to ‘f*** off’ during a row over suggestions that William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin. The Duke reportedly made an ‘anguished’ intervention during a call with Mr Blair’s team, saying over speakerphone: ‘‘F*** off. We are talking about two boys who have lost their mother.’

Mr Blair’s aides also tried to boost the former Prime Minister’s role during the Queen Mother’s lying-in-state in 2002.