Michael Gove leaked the Queen’s private comments on the European Union to the press to boost the Brexit campaign, Nick Clegg has claimed.
In a new BBC documentary to air on Monday, the former deputy prime minister names Mr Gove as the source behind a Sun story which suggested the Queen supported leaving the EU.
The story triggered a heated row at the time with Buckingham Palace, which the unusual step of formally complaining about the report to the press watchdog.
Mr Clegg, the former Liberal Democrat leader who attended the event where the comments were made, goes public with the accusation that Mr Gove – also present – leaked the remarks.
“Michael Gove obviously communicated it, well I know he did, he gave this to The Sun,” Mr Clegg says in the programme.
He denies the Queen backed Brexit during the conversations and adds: “I think it was very, very disrespectful of Michael Gove to have done that.”
Mr Gove is also asked about the incident during the programme. “Well as I’ve said before I don’t know how The Sun got all its information, and I don’t think it’s really worth my adding anything to what’s already been said about this story,” he says.
Mr Gove’s office has consistently denied he was behind the leak.
Elsewhere in the documentary, Craig Oliver, Mr Cameron’s chief spin doctor, reveals that Boris Johnson only informed them he would be backing Brexit 15 minutes before the announcement.
He also criticises pollsters over the defeat for failing to forecast that millions of people who had never voted before would turn out in the referendum, with many supporting leaving the EU.
Senior Labour figures also criticise their leader Jeremy Corbyn’s “lukewarm” campaigning to stay in the EU, with one suggesting he may really have wanted Britain to leave.
Lord Mandelson, the Labour peer who campaigned for Remain, says on the documentary: “It was very difficult to know what Jeremy Corbyn’s motives were. Did he just sort of get out of bed the wrong side every day and not feel (in a) very sort of friendly, happy mood and want to help us?
“Or was there something deeper, did he simply not want to find himself on the same side as the Prime Minister and the Government? Or perhaps he just deep down actually doesn’t think we should remain in the European Union. Who knows.”
The programme, Brexit: Battle for Britain, will be aired on BBC Two at 9pm on Monday.