Followers of the Beaufort Hunt helped Prince and Princess Michael of Kent to push their car out of the mud on Saturday.

The Prince and Princess are to be helped out of trouble of another sort by the Queen, who has bowed to pressure from MPs and agreed to pay up to £1 million of her own money to enable the couple to continue to live at Kensington Palace.

The move will relieve the burden on the taxpayer, who subsidises Kensington Palace, also home to the Duke of Kent, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alice and a host of royal retainers. The Kents pay about £70 a week in rent but a further £3,500 for maintenance costs for their five-bedroom grace-and-favour apartment, which comes complete with domestic staff. They will move out within ten years, and the other residents may leave at roughly the same time.

The apartment was given to Prince Michael by the Queen, who is his first cousin, as part of his wedding gift in 1978. The gift was made on the basis that he could remain there rent-free for life. “The Queen is not in the habit of going back on her word,” one royal official said. “She is also very fond of Prince Michael.” However, the tenancy has attracted controversy. Prince Michael has suffered from his “royal for rent” image, while his wife has been dubbed “Princess Pushy”. Supporters of the Prince say the reputation is unfair as he carries out at least 200 charity engagements each year at his own expense.

The Kents own a house in Gloucestershire said to be worth up to £3 million, and many MPs say the couple should make this their permanent base. The Queen’s decision, confirmation of which is expected by the end of the week, was made after pressure from modernisers at Buckingham Palace led by Sir Robin Janvrin, her private secretary, and Lord Luce, the Lord Chamberlain, and has pre-empted any decision made by the Commons Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinises the spending of taxpayers’ money on Kensington Palace.

Buckingham Palace is also expected to announce what will happen to the apartment occupied by the late Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace. Her son Viscount Linley, who had been living there, has moved out. The apartment of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is used as a storeroom.

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