Prince Andrews interview with BBC host Emily Maitlis this weekend has already been widely panned as disastrous and now the royal has been accused of using the n-word during a meeting with a government aide.

According to Evening Standard columnist Rohan Silva, the Duke of York used the n-word at a Buckingham Palace meeting with him when he was a Downing Street advisor to the tech economy.

Silva, who is of Sri Lankan heritage, says the incident took place during a discussion in 2012 about trade policy, and came as he asked the prince whether the government department responsible for trade could be doing a better job.

He alleges Andrew replied: Well, if you pardon the expression, that really is the n***** in the woodpile.

Silva told the newspaper the exchange left him reeling and that for a long time afterwards, I kicked myself for not confronting the prince on his choice of words.

Palace sources issued strong denials to the newspaper, insisting he did not use the phrase and that he never would use such language.

Yet in a column published also on Monday , Silva recounts another uncomfortable exchange with the prince a year earlier, in which the royal is alleged to have interrupted him during a discussion about the tech economy by saying: What you have got to remember, is that youll never get anywhere by playing the white man.