The coroner overseeing the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed has asked Paul Burrell to return to the High Court following newspaper claims that he did not tell the whole truth when giving evidence.

Lord Justice Scott Baker said he wanted the Princess’s former butler to return to explain himself after he was caught on camera, apparently boasting that he had withheld information during his earlier appearance in the witness stand.

In a video obtained by The Sun newspaper, Mr Burrell appeared to boast that he had held back certain facts and introduced “red herrings” into his evidence.

A spokesman for the inquests said: “The coroner has asked Mr Burrell to return to court to explain discrepancies between the evidence he gave to the inquest and the material which is contained in the transcripts of the recording taken by the Sun newspaper.”

On the tape, which appears to have been shot using a hidden camera, and which the paper says was recorded in New York, Burrell said: “I told the truth as far as I could - but I didn't tell the whole truth. Perjury is not a nice thing to have to contemplate. I was very naughty and I made a couple of red herrings, and I couldn't help doing it.”

He said he felt that the Princess was guiding him as he stood in the witness stand. “I felt it in the courtroom. I felt her indignity too. She knew why I was doing it. It was what she wanted – and that's between me and her.”

He added that he had not been willing to disclose the details of a conversation he had had with the Queen after Diana's death. "The conversation with the Queen was three hours long, and I wasn't about to sit there and divulge everything she said to me," he said.

Most observers agree that Mr Burrell suffered a difficult two days at the inquest last month. Under cross-examination from Mohamed Al Fayed’s legal team, he appeared to change tack on the evidence he had given only that morning, over the contents of documents he claimed to possess at his home in Cheshire.

When he arrived back in court bearing them the following day, the coroner told the jury that none of them added anything of interest to the inquest.

Following the publication of a transcript of the video tape this week, Mohamed Al Fayed had his day in the witness stand, and waved a copy of The Sun at the coroner, saying: “It’s important to bring him back.” He said Mr Burrell had said “baloney things”.

He was asked not to read out anything from the paper in court. The inquests resume on Tuesday.

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