Former Royal butler Paul Burrell has launched a scathing attack on the Spencer family and its relationship with the late Princess of Wales.

In his second interview for the Mirror newspaper, Mr Burrell claimed the family found Princess Diana "unacceptable" when she was alive.

"The Spencers found Diana unacceptable in life... isn't it ironic how she suddenly became acceptable in death?" he said.

[The Spencers] are hopping mad and take issue with practically everything Paul Burrell has said

BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond

The Spencers are understood to be furious at the allegations, and to hotly dispute almost every claim Mr Burrell makes.

The former butler singled out the princess's mother and her siblings for criticism.

He said Diana's brother Earl Spencer was a "hypocrite" over his famous oration at her funeral and said his "stomach turned" when he listened to it.

"And I, for one, would never have paraded her life before a museum and charged �10.50 a time," he added.

On Thursday, the earl refused to comment publicly on Mr Burrell's accusations.

Unveiling a plaque to Diana in Northampton he simply said: "We as a family are deeply proud of what she did during her lifetime".

Mr Burrell also accused Diana's mother Frances Shand Kydd of making "shocking" telephone calls to her daughter late at night, to which Diana sometimes insisted he listen.

Mr Burrell alleged Diana's sister Sarah was jealous, saying: "On Diana's wedding day, she turned to the princess and said: 'I thought all this would be mine one day'."

Mirror editor Piers Morgan told the BBC Mr Burrell should not be criticised for telling his side of the story.

He has been treated poorly from the start

David Graham, Britain

Click here to send your comments

"When it comes to the Spencers he believes that they were quite happy to have him jailed, to have him shut up and seen off and to have his life ruined," he said.

"He is perfectly prepared to put the record straight and, as he says, 'settle the score' with the Spencer family."

BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said the only hint of the Queen's mood about the Burrell revelations on Wednesday evening was that she was "philosophical".

"But someone very close to the Spencers made it clear that they are hopping mad and take issue with practically everything Paul Burrell has said," she said.

Gagging order

In the first instalment of his revelations to the Mirror, Mr Burrell claimed the Queen warned him his closeness to Diana could put his safety at risk.

He said the dramatic comments were made during the same three-hour meeting that, when eventually recalled by the Queen, triggered the collapse of his trial for theft last week.

He said she told him: "There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge."

The interview came after Mr Burrell won a High Court injunction against the Mirror's main rival, The Sun, stopping it from publishing extracts from legal statements he had made.

Last week Mr Burrell, 44, was found not guilty of three charges against him of stealing from Diana's estate, the Prince of Wales and Prince William.

The trial dramatically collapsed after it emerged he had told the Queen in a meeting two months after Diana's death in 1997 that he was keeping some of the princess's possessions.