PM rejects calls for official probe into Queen Brexit story

David Cameron has rejected calls for an official investigation into The Sun newspaper's claim that the Queen had backs a Brexit.

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Cameron: Possible Queen/Brexit leak 'very serious'

David Cameron has warned that any minister or Privy Councillor found to be behind a newspaper story claiming the Queen supports Britain leaving the EU would be a "very serious" matter.

ITV News deputy political editor Chris Ship asked the Prime Minister whether anyone would be forced to resign from the government or made to leave the Privy Council, should they be identified as the source of The Sun's story.

He went on to say that an investigation had been launched by the Independent Press Standards Organisation - though he incorrectly referred to it as the Independent Press Complaints Commission.

"I think we should let them do their work, and leave them to decide what they think happened," he added.

Chris Grayling: The Queen is very much above politics

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling. Credit: ITV News

The Queen is "very much above politics", the Leader of the House of Commons and the Lord President of the Privy Council has said.

Speaking about the report that Her Majesty had voiced anti-EU remarks during a lunch with MPs, Chris Grayling told ITV News' Lewis Vaughan Jones:

I think it's really important that we treat anything the Queen ever says as private.

My experience of working with the Queen as the person who presides over the Privy Council is that she is very much above politics.

She fulfills her role as a constitutional monarch brilliantly and we should all applaud her for it.

– Chris Grayling MP

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Did Michael Gove leak the claim that the Queen backs Brexit?

Michael Gove is at the centre of speculation suggesting he may be the source of the claims that the Queen backed Brexit in a row with former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

The former education secretary is a close friend of Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Sun newspaper.

Gove is also going to head the Vote Leave campaign as chairman of its campaigning committee.

Gove's spokesman refutes the claims that he is the source of the story.

ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston reports:

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