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.”

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.

The test to determine whether Harry and Meghan were involved with Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame, is to see if Prince Harry sues him. Harry dislikes anyone breaching his privacy and is a regular at the high courts.

Similarly, Meghan isn’t known to be slow in calling out intrusion when private correspondence is thrust into the public domain. It is something she has done before, and after the contents of private letters exchanged between King Charles have been exposed, why not now?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been urged to back the King and Princess of Wales amid accusations of racism.

Prince Harry and Meghan have so far made no comment after Charles III and Katherine were accused of raising questions about the skin colour of Archie in a Dutch translation of Omid Scobie’s Endgame.

“For the couple that talked about ‘death by a thousand no comments’, the silence at this point is deafening,” a source close to Prince Harry and Meghan told The Telegraph, as they urged the couple to defend their relatives.

Reminder: The Princess of Wales has taken elocution lessons and now sounds more posh than her husband, Omid Scobie claimed:

The Independent recaps the twists and turns of this very modern royal row, starting in 2016:

Rishi Sunak refrained from commenting on a royal controversy surrounding allegations of racism while commending the King for his role in international climate talks.

Asked about the controversy as he flew to Dubai for the Cop28 climate talks, Mr Sunak told reporters: “By longstanding and appropriate convention it wouldn’t be right for me to talk about the royal family in any way shape or form.”

He praised the climate-conscious King and highlighted the UK’s leadership at the climate summit. “I’m delighted that he’s going to be at Cop tomorrow, he’s giving a call to arms in the opening statement,” Mr Sunak said.

“It speaks volumes about our type of leadership as a country that we’ve got our head of state there, delivering a call to arms in the opening statement which speaks volumes about the respect that he’s got on this issue around the world.

“We’ve got the head of government there in me, and we’ve got our chief diplomat there in the Foreign Secretary. There are very few countries that will be able to say what I’ve just said.

“So that speaks again to our leadership on this issue and particularly His Majesty’s longstanding track record championing this issue and I’m delighted that he’s going to be delivering this very important statement tomorrow.”

The monarchy has suffered “long-lasting reputational damage” and it is going to affect the whole family as well as the institutions, a royal commentator has said.

Joe Little of Majesty magazine said that the doubts are enough to cause damage to the royal family and monarchy as a whole due to the racism row.

“The allegations, true or untrue, will clearly put doubt in the minds of people who are aware of the individuals who have been named. That can’t be helpful in any shape or form.

“But mud sticks, once the shadow of doubt is there, it never really goes away, and it’s got to impact not only on the individuals but also the institution as a whole - it’s a long-lasting reputational damage,” he said.