by MICHAEL TAGGART, Daily MAil

SHE has hardly built herself a reputation as the nation's favourite Royal.

Now Princess Michael of Kent is likely to see her popularity rating fall even further thanks to comments attributed to her in a book.

The princess allegedly described England as "the most stupid nation in Europe".

She made the remark in conversation with the late society gossip James Lees-Milne, it was reported last night.

The 58-year-old, nicknamed Princess Pushy, also told the diarist she dislikes other members of her family.

In his diaries, published next month, he writes: "She has a poor opinion of the English, calling them the stupidest nation in Europe. She particularly dislikes their false modesty, which she finds hypocritical."

The author, who died aged 90 in 1997, also remembers Princess Michael's frosty relationship with the Queen. On one occasion, Caroline, the Duchess of Beaufort, had invited Her Majesty to lunch during the nearby Badminton Horse Trials.

Lees-Milne writes: "Caroline is in a dreadful state of anxiety about the Queen lunching at the House.

"Princess Michael (was) not invited as the Queen does not care for her."

The late Queen Mother is portrayed in the diaries as "a hater of Germans", but the German-born Princess Michael returned the animosity, according to Lees-Milne.

"She makes it clear by innuendo that she dislikes the Royal Family," he writes in extracts printed in the Daily Mirror.

The revelations - the latest in a long line of embarrassments for the princess - are sure to deepen her rift with the Queen, who is her husband's cousin.

They were reportedly at loggerheads after the couple held a £15,000 champagne party at Kensington Palace just hours after the Queen Mother's lying in state ceremony last year.

Both the Queen and Prince Charles were said to be "extremely upset".

On another occasion, in 1995, the Palace rebuked Prince and Princess Michael over their refusal to pay an excess baggage charge at Washington Airport. But Lees-Milne speaks well of the Princess, describing her as "friendly and anxious to please, does please and makes one feel interesting".

Despite their tense relationship, the Queen will pay the estimated open-market rent of £125,000 a year to fund their sumptuous grace-and-favour accommodation at Kensington Palace until the end of the decade.

But the diary is sure to add to the woes of mother-of-two Princess Michael, who underwent treatment for skin cancer last year.