Queen should pick up bill for Burrell case, says Mowlam

The former cabinet minister Mo Mowlam called on the Queen last night to pick up the legal bill for the failed prosecution of Paul Burrell.

Her call comes amid dismay among Labour MPs over the handling of the case by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service and anger over the late intervention by the Queen that triggered its collapse.

Ms Mowlam told BBC1's Question Time: "That we have to pay something like £1.6m I think is inexcusable." She said the case "should never have have been brought anyway and I think it's completely cocked up."

Ms Mowlam added: "The Queen can afford it. She's obviously in there with something going on and we don't know the full truth ... She doesn't have to legally, she doesn't have to give a penny. But I think it would be a very helpful, positive sign to help the monarchy, not that that interests me as I am a republican."

Ms Mowlam also attacked the determination of the Crown Prosecution Service to pursue the case and questioned why the Queen took so long to intervene. "I can't understand why the Queen had this sudden memory lapse . . . How did it take her so long to remember this piece of information?" she said.

The former Northern Ireland secretary also demanded a review of the constitution in the light of the case, including an examination of the relationship between the monarch and the law.

The Government has gone out of its way to avoid being caught up in the row that has followed the spectacular collapse of the Burrell prosecution. It has refused to make a Commons statement and Tony Blair has insisted he believed the Queen behaved properly.

In the Daily Mirror today, Mr Burrell, a former butler to Diana, Princess of Wales, claims Earl Spencer's rift with the Windsors ran so deep that he removed the royal standard from Diana's coffin and replaced it with a Spencer flag. He says that after making the switch in front of the Prince of Wales, Prince William and Prince Harry at Althorp House, the Earl announced: "She is a Spencer now."

Mr Burrell tells the newspaper: "I knew it was not what Diana would have wanted. With that act, her brother was depriving the Princess of her proper status in life – a status of which she was proud," he told the newspaper. A source close to the Earl confirmed the allegation. "I believe the coffin was covered in a Spencer flag once it had arrived at Althorp," the source said.

Earlier, Earl Spencer said he was "deeply proud" of his sister Diana after Mr Burrell, the former butler to the Princess of Wales, launched a stinging attack on the family.

In the interview, Mr Burrell called Earl Spencer a "hypocrite", claimed Diana's mother, Frances Shand Kydd, made "shocking" telephone calls to her daughter late at night, and criticised the Earl's decision to charge people to see her grave.

The Earl, in Northampton to unveil a plaque in Diana's memory, would not answer reporters' questions directly. But, in a speech to about 100 people, he said: "Diana was somebody who inspired enormous affection and admiration around the world. I know we, as a family, are deeply proud of what she achieved during her lifetime and also of the work that continues."