The Queen’s Speech is going to be delayed because it has to be written on goatskin paper and the ink takes days to dry.

Whitehall sources suggested at a briefing of journalists in Westminster on Monday morning that the state opening of parliament, scheduled for June 19, will be pushed back.

Government sources have now claimed that the reason for the delay is the amount of time it takes to write the legislative agenda onto special archival paper.

However, critics have suggested that the Government is playing for time as it tries to hammer out the terms of a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party.

The difficulty lies in the simple fact that the contents of the Queen’s Speech are yet to be finalised after voters returned a hung Parliament on June 8.