The Royal Family was so upset by Tony Blair and Downing Street’s micromanagement of affairs after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, that at one point the Duke of Edinburgh told government officials to “f*** off”, a new book reveals.

Prince Philip, who is well known for his brusque humour and frequent gaffes, lost his temper during a discussion with No 10 about funeral arrangements for the Princess in the days after her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

The tension between the Royal Family — who were severely criticised for their apparent lack of compassion — and the Government over how to deal with the Princess’s death was portrayed in the 2006 film The Queen.

In the film, Helen Mirren, playing the Queen, did not hide her initial irritation — and incomprehension — at Mr Blair’s advice to be more open with a public outraged at her decision not to return to London from Balmoral Castle to mourn publicly. But she and the Prince, played by James Cromwell, eventually came round and realised that Mr Blair had struck a chord in calling Diana the “people’s princess”.

In reality, the atmosphere in Buckingham Palace and Balmoral was far icier.

In the book, Tony’s Ten Years, Adam Boulton, the political editor of Sky News, writes: “The events of that week in September 1997 were very sad, but as the spinners from Downing Street came to Buckingham Palace and started to kick around what roles Harry and William should play in the funeral, the Queen relished the moment when Philip bellowed over the speakerphone from Balmoral, ‘F*** off. We are talking about two boys who have lost their mother’.

“Once the arrangements had been sorted out, Blair read the lesson very dramatically that day in the Abbey.”

Prince Philip’s wicked sense of humour has landed him in hot water before, such as the occasion when he asked Lord Taylor of Warwick, who is black and lives in Birmingham: “And what exotic part of the world do you come from then?”

But he was not the only one quoted as swearing angrily by Mr Boulton in his book.

The television journalist, who has been in his position at the news channel since it was launched in 1989, reveals that John Prescott once referred to a Welsh MP who was speaking Welsh as “that f****** taff speaking f****** taff”.

Tony Blair himself called the novelist Robert Harris a “cheeky f***” for his 2007 novel, Ghost, a thinly veiled lampoon of Blair and the people who surrounded him.

The book will also create problems for Nicholas Sarkozy, who tells Blair in the book, while still married to his now ex-wife, Cecilia, that he is “unwilling to stop philandering”.

Along with verbal gaffes from important people, the book provides an insider’s view of the so-called “Blairwell tour” from Westminster to Washington to Iraq and back to Sedgefield.

It also tells of the conflict between Blair and his successor, Gordon Brown, the decision to join the US invasion of Iraq, and the personal pressures on the Blair family.

The revelations will carry added weight because Mr Boulton is the husband of Anji Hunter, who was a senior aide at Blair’s side in 1997.

Tony’s Ten Years will be published on October 6.

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