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The Queen has said she is disappointed in Britain's political leaders and their "inability to govern correctly", it is claimed.

The 93-year-old monarch is said to have privately expressed frustration with the political class in an exchange overheard at an event shortly after Britain voted to leave the EU and David Cameron resigned as prime minister.

A royal source claims the Queen was "really dismayed" over the situation and unhappy with the "quality" of Britain's politicians amid Brexit chaos.

Her frustration has likely only grown, the source adds, with MPs now threatening to drag her into Brexit and the UK moving closer to a no-deal under new Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The source told the Sunday Times: "I think she’s really dismayed.

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"I’ve heard her talking about her disappointment in the current political class and its inability to govern correctly."

The source added: “She expressed her exasperation and frustration about the quality of our political leadership, and that frustration will only have grown.”

The Queen has stayed out of the political affairs of the state and is known for being strictly neutral during her reign.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Her views have rarely been exposed and this is said to be among the starkest political statements she is known to have made, coming as a surprise to courtiers.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the claims.

The claims emerged as Tory rebels and Labour MPs plot to call on the Queen to intervene if Mr Johnson refuses to quit in the wake of a Commons no confidence vote.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell suggested last week he would respond by sending Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to Buckingham Palace "in a cab" to tell the Queen his party was prepared to assume power.

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He said he would prefer not to "drag" the Queen into it.

Mr Boris has reportedly agreed to meet Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to discuss Brexit and the Northern Irish backstop.

"The UK has accepted Varadkar's offer to meet and dates are being discussed," a British source told the Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Johnson has told the European Union there is no point in new talks on a withdrawal agreement unless negotiators are willing to drop the backstop agreed by his predecessor Theresa May.

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The EU has said it is not prepared to reopen the divorce deal it agreed with Mrs May, which includes the backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return to a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland.

Mrs May's agreement, rejected three times by the British parliament, says the United Kingdom will remain in a customs union "unless and until" alternative arrangements are found to avoid a hard border.

Mr Johnson has said Britain will leave the EU on October 31 with or without a deal.

He has stepped up preparations to leave without a divorce agreement if Brussels refuses to renegotiate, prompting some lawmakers to suspect a no-deal Brexit is his goal.

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The Telegraph said it was hoped a meeting between Johnson and Varadkar could take place before the G7 summit in France later in August.

Meanwhile, former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has said that the UK, having previously been admired around the world for being inclusive and outward-looking, now presents a picture of division, intolerance and introversion.

In an opinion column for the Observer, Mr Brown wrote that three weeks into Mr Johnson's premiership, "English nationalism is on the rise, the Conservative and Unionist party has been reincarnated as the Conservative and Brexit party (and) unionism appears to be sleepwalking into oblivion".

He finished by saying that the ideals of an inclusive outward-looking Britishness "could not survive the divisiveness and chaos of a no-deal Brexit".

To prevent the rise of dysfunctional nationalism, Mr Brown said, "the first step is to stop no deal in its tracks".