BBC's Jon Sopel talks to Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell warmly praised the efforts of royal staff in pulling together to organise the Princess's state funeral during the turbulent days following the tragedy.

Praise for the Palace: Alistair Campbell

In a rare broadcast interview, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Relationships that might take years to forge, in that kind of atmosphere and putting together that kind of event - those relationships were forged in days.

"That is something obviously that has been important because it is important that the government has very, very good relations with the royal family."

Mr Blair's aides were regular visitors to the Palace soon after the tragedy, leading to fears that the prime minister's office had taken over organising events.

Intimate relations

But Mr Campbell dismissed as a "complete caricature" claims that Downing Street had to step in because Buckingham Palace was out of touch with the people and did not know how to react.

He said: "I think the Palace did an astonishing job putting together the people that needed to work together, in a way that they could organise in less than a week one of the most extraordinary events that any of us will ever have seen - an event that was very healing and uniting, and it was to their huge credit.

"It was obvious that an event like that was going to involve the government and therefore it was important that the government and the palace stayed very close together, in terms not just of the organisation of the event itself, but also in terms of our understanding of what was happening."

The Queen's biographer, Professor Ben Pimlott, confirmed there is an intimate relationship between Downing Street and the royals.

He said Prince Charles's community projects such as those carried out by his Prince's Trust were similar to Tony Blair's vision set out before he was elected prime minister.