Outrage over royals’ ‘WAG’ wedding

The publication today of Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly's wedding photos in Hello! magazine has prompted an angry response from MPs and former courtiers, who claim it diminishes the monarchy and lays it more open to attack from the press and general public. Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, said: "If you want to maintain the institution and people's regard for it, then you actually have to avoid commercialising it and shifting it in the direction of celebrity footballers." Senior courtiers echo his views, privately claiming Hello!'s presence at last Saturday’s event made it "tawdry and WAG-ish".

Pictures of the newlyweds, who received £500,000 for access to their wedding, which included pictures from St George's Chapel as well as the reception, are spread exhaustively over 59 pages of the magazine. They include photos of the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh,  and Chelsy Davy and Kate Middleton, the girlfriends of Harry and William. Phillips and his wife are said to have brokered the deal without prior approval from the Queen. When she did find out, both she, her husband and other senior royals stipulated that no photos should be taken of them at the reception.

Dicky Arbiter, former assistant press secretary to the Queen, said: "I find the pictures inside St George's Chapel particularly intrusive." He suggests there was a lack of parental advice coming from Princess Anne. "Somebody should have taken control of the situation and that somebody should not have been Peter Phillips." ·