10,000 to join Queen for her 90th birthday charity lunch (3)

So who will run the Queen's huge street party? Her Majesty's own grandson: Peter Philips's firm to organise event after putting in 'bid' to Buckingham Palace 

Family connection: The Queen's birthday street party is being organised by an Australian firm, whose London director is her grandson, Peter Phillips (pictured)

The Queen’s birthday street party is being organised by Australian firm Sports and Entertainment Limited, whose London director is none other than her grandson, Peter Phillips.It also emerged yesterday that although it is a not-for-profit event, Mr Phillips’ business is being paid an undisclosed fee from the money raised by ticket sales to charities and members of the public.

Princess Anne’s son – who controversially sold the rights to his wedding to Hello! magazine for a rumoured £500,000 – insisted yesterday that his company devised the idea and put in a ‘bid’ to Buckingham Palace to organise it without him even mentioning it to his grandmother. It was only after he had got the ‘sign off’ that he discussed it with her, he claimed.

‘SEL is being paid a set fee basically to take this from sign-off from the Palace through to delivery of the event,’ he confirmed in an interview to publicise the celebration.

‘I was very conscious to make sure we did this properly, so we went through the normal channels of approaching the Palace. We had to show that this wasn’t a case of trying to cut corners because the Queen happens to be my grandmother.’ Describing his conversation with the Queen he recalled: ‘I said, “Oh, by the way you may or may not have heard that we are having conversations with your office about this”….She said “I’ve heard you’re up to something”.’

Mr Phillips said the idea for the street party had come up during ‘conversations with my business partners’ more than two years ago and just ‘snowballed’.

He insisted: ‘We went through the normal channels.

‘We presented an idea to them [Buckingham Palace] – they really liked that idea. That took a few months to get through the various sign-off processes that you have to go through for these events.

‘Then we got the sign-off in December 2014. It was after we had approached the office that I spoke to her about it.

‘The idea started as a conversation…and how we should really do something to celebrate the Queen’s patronages. For me what the family does as a whole for a lot of these organisations is not entirely appreciated by the wider public.’

Mr Phillips insisted his grandmother was firmly behind the project. He said: ‘She is really excited by this – she thinks it is a great idea. She loves the fact that all of these organisations are going to be brought together for the first time.’

Keen rugby player Mr Phillips, 38, who studied at Exeter University, has long worked in the corporate and global sponsorship sector for firms including Jaguar and Williams F1.

He was previously head of global sponsorship at RBS but in May 2012 was given the chance to set up a UK arm of SEL which, unsurprisingly, boasts his sister Zara Phillips as one of its main clients.

Always one of the quieter of the younger royals, Mr Phillips prompted controversy, however, in 2008 when sold the photographic rights to his wedding to Canadian Autumn Kelly for a six-figure sum.

Surprise: Mr Phillips (second from left, with Autumn Kelly, Zara Phillips and the Queen) insisted yesterday that his company devised the idea and put in a ‘bid’ to Buckingham Palaceto organise it without him even mentioning it to his grandmother

Despite their refusal to pose for Hello! photographers, several pictures of senior members of the Royal Family – including the Queen – subsequently appeared over 100 pages of the magazine

Princes William and Harry also privately expressed their concern that their then girlfriends,Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy, featured heavily in the publication. Courtiers suggested theQueen was an unwitting ‘victim’ of the controversial deal.

The monarch, however, is extremely fond of her grandchildren and all was eventually forgiven.Mr Phillips and his wife are now regulars at royal events and have two children, Savannah,five, and Isla, three. Although his mother chose not to give him a royal title, Mr Phillips is13th in line to the throne.