Butler 'will not tell Diana's secrets'

Solicitor Andrew Shaw: Secrets "will never be told"

Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell will never betray her closest secrets, his solicitor has said.

"I don't think that he will ever tell all," Andrew Shaw told BBC One's Breakfast With Frost programme on Sunday.

"I don't think you could force him to tell all. I think that there will always be the important intimate secrets that he was entrusted with by the princess that will never be told."

A media bidding war has broken out for Mr Burrell's story since the collapse of his trial for theft, with at least 300 publications offering up to £1m for him to "dish the dirt", his agent David Warwick said.

All Mr Burrell wants to talk about... is what this case has done to him, to his family, his close friends and his life in general

Mr Burrell's agent David Warwick

But Mr Warwick said he would be "very surprised" if the former butler was ever disloyal to the princess.

"With all the things he has been through, he has not traded off the back of the Princess of Wales, yet he has kept his dignity. I would be very surprised if he was ever disloyal to her."

At the moment, Mr Burrell was at a "safe location" with his wife and two children in an attempt to have "as normal a Sunday as possible," Mr Warwick said.

Confidential

"All Mr Burrell wants to talk about at this moment in time is what this case has done to him, to his family, his close friends and his life in general.

"If you had gone through what he has in the last two years and you did not have the chance to go into the dock and put your side of the story, wouldn't you want to put the record straight?"

Paul Burrell is currently at a secret location

Mr Burrell spoke briefly on Saturday night for the first time since the spectacular collapse of his theft trial.

He was acquitted of stealing hundreds of Princess Diana's possessions on Friday when the Queen remembered he had told her five years ago he was taking some documents for safe-keeping.

"I never realised that what I told the Queen could clear me," he told BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell.

He said he had assumed that, like every other conversation he had with her, the details had to remain confidential.

'Obstructing justice'

Meanwhile, the Queen is coming under increasing pressure over her role in the case.

Labour MP Dennis Skinner said ''the full rigour of the law'' should be applied to the Queen for what he called ''a clear-cut case of withholding vital information before and during the trial''.

Mr Skinner said he would write to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, about the Queen's actions.

"If this was an ordinary man or woman in the street, they would be accused of withholding vital information and obstructing the course of justice,'' Mr Skinner said.

I never realised that what I told the Queen could clear me

Paul Burrell

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said the forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill should be used to remove the Queen's name from prosecutions.

''It is now logical to think of replacing the monarch as the person in whose name everything is prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution and Director of Public Prosecutions,'' Mr Hughes said.

He also suggested the Queen could find a way out of the controversy by offering to pay the taxpayer's bill for the Burrell trial.

The case is estimated to have cost at least £1.5m.

On Breakfast With Frost, Mr Shaw also revealed he had written to the Queen's solicitor "many months ago", offering to disclose all the information in his possession about the case, but had been rebuffed.