Piers Morgan explains why he named Charles and Kate as ‘royal racists’ in Omid Scobie book - live

Former UK prime Minister Boris Johnson has called the racism row surrounding the royal family “normal” and “not remotely racist”.

The racism row has reared its head once more in the wake of Omid Scobie’s tell-all book, which hit the stands on Tuesday.

While the English version made no mention of who said what, a misprint in the recalled Dutch translation pointed the finger at two senior royals.

The revelation of the accused royals made headlines around the world and saw Dutch versions of the book pulled from shelves.

The former PM wrote in the Daily Mail: “To ask such questions, in anticipation of a happy event, is simple human nature.

“It is one of the greatest joys and -mysteries of life that we have no real idea, in utero, what our children will look like ... that, I expect, was exactly the kind of ruminative debate that the so-called royal racist was having.”

The former prime minister went on to use his op-ed to attack “wokery and cancel culture”, which he believes is at the heart of the latest royal fiasco.

He said: “Frankly, I neither know nor care which royal said something about Archie, but I am certain that he or she was not remotely racist.

“It’s time to stop all this nonsense, and re-draw the distinction between the ugliness of racism and prejudice - against which we have abundant statutes - and ordinary, innocent patterns of human thought and behaviour.”

Boris Johnson has called the racism row surrounding the royal family “normal” and “not remotely racist”.

The racism row has reared its head once more in the wake of Omid Scobie’s tell-all book, which hit the stands on Tuesday.

A Dutch translation of the book identified King Charles and the Princess of Wales as the two senior royals who allegedly raised “concerns” about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son.

It was a royal saga to put even the most dramatic of Crown episodes to shame.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, sat across from Oprah Winfrey in a sprawling LA mansion, making the astonishing claim that a senior member of the royal family had made comments about the skin colour of their then unborn child, Archie.

The fallout was enormous, and though the Duke of Sussex later distanced himself from the remarks, the damage to The Firm was undeniable.

Fast forward two years when Omid Scobie’s book, Endgame, which purports to expose the monarchy and the fierce battles fought among the royals, reignited the damaging row thanks to a “translation error” which identified the two senior royals at the heart of the claims: Charles and Catherine.

For more than a decade, William Conacher has been teaching stars from Naomi Watts to Elizabeth Debicki how to sound like the Princess of Wales. Ahead of the final batch of ‘The Crown’ episodes, he gives Isobel Lewis a lesson in Diana-isms:

The late Princess Diana had one of the most recognisable faces on the planet, and the voice to match. Over the years, plenty have parodied the doe-eyed, low-voiced royal. But according to dialect coach William Conacher, the man responsible for getting some of the world’s biggest actors to sound like Diana, it’s much more complex than it might seem.

A new book about the royal family has reignited a racism row, after it named two members of the family who allegedly made comments about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son.

Endgame, by royal author Omid Scobie, refers to the row that started two years ago after comments made by Meghan Markle in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

But the Dutch version of the book names the individuals said to have been involved as King Charles and the Princess of Wales.

King Charles shrugged off a royal racism storm that threatened to overshadow his Cop28 speech, delivering an urgent message to world leaders: “The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.”

Echoing The Independent’s call for action to turn the tide of climate change before it is too late, he told delegates at the Dubai eco-conference that nations must work together to preserve our planet for generations to come.

“I pray Cop28 will be a critical tipping point towards genuine action,” Charles said, ignoring the racism row that continues to rumble on in the wake of royal author Omid Scobie’s palace exposé, Endgame.

The Dutch translator for Omid Scobie’s Endgame has broken her silence to insist the names of the royals who allegedly raised questions about Prince Archie’s skin colour were “there in black and white” in the manuscript she was sent.

The royal author’s second book was pulled from the shelves in the Netherlands after the translated version identified the two royals said to have questioned the skin tone of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s child before he was born.

The publisher dismissed the edition containing the names as a “translation error”. But translator Saskia Peeters, who worked on Scobie‘s latest book, refuted claims she had added the names of the two royals in the Dutch translation of her own accord, despite the English version leaving them out.

As the world reacts to the unfolding drama, we take a look at the man behind Endgame:

Author Omid Scobie has been accused of being behind a “stunt to sell books” during a television interview where he claimed never to have named the two race row royals in his expose.

This Morning co-host Craig Doyle quizzed the journalist about his royal family book Endgame, saying it seemed “bizarre” to the public that two members of the monarchy, accused of racism by commentators, had been identified in the Dutch version of his book.

Copies of Mr Scobie’s book were pulled from the shelves in the Netherlands on publication day on Tuesday, when they were found to have named two members of the royal family alleged to have raised “concerns” about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son.

As the royal ‘exposer-in-chief’ Omid Scobie is lambasted for betraying so many private conversations with his gossipy book ‘Endgame’, Harry’s biographer Angela Levin asks why has there been no word from the Sussexes: