Palace officials hatched a secret plan to tell Boris Johnson the Queen could not come to the phone if he tried to call an election, a new book has claimed.
Courtiers became concerned that the ex-Prime Minister could call a snap poll in a desperate bid to cling onto power.
Constitutional protocol allows the monarch to reject such a bid if another leader can form a functioning Government - but insiders were afraid that if the Queen refused the request then it would trigger a constitutional crisis.
