Prince Philip in name gaffe

Prince Philip has made one of his notorious gaffes by joking with a British-Indian business leader about his name, The Sun reported yesterday.

During a reception at Buckingham Palace for some 400 influential British Indians, the Duke of Edinburgh greeted Atul Patel by glancing at his name tag and saying: "There's a lot of your family in tonight."

The comment appeared to suggest that all Patels are related. Patel is a common Indian surname, and there are an estimated 670,000 Patels living in Britain, the tabloid said.

A spokesman for Mr Patel, who is chief executive officer of leading housing association the LHA-Asra group, said no offence was taken by the remark.

"Absolutely no offence was taken at all by Atul. It was taken in a very light hearted way," he told the paper.

The 88-year-old prince is well known for undiplomatic off-hand remarks, which have included:

• "Still throwing spears?" (a question to an Australian Aborigine during a 2002 visit).

• "You managed not to get eaten, then?" (to a student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea, 1998).