Alastair Campbell has claimed that Tony Blair was “p----d off” when Princess Diana used a dinner with him to ask if she could meet his campaign director.

Mr Campbell said that the former prime minister was left angered after the first thing the late Princess of Wales said upon meeting him was: “What’s Alastair Campbell really like? I’d love to meet him.”

Speaking on the Table Manners podcast on Wednesday, Mr Campbell said the encounter had left Mr Blair “really p----d off” because he was left thinking “I’m meant to be the main guy”.

He recounted that Mr Blair and his wife Cherie had met the Princess at a dinner party in Chelsea that they were invited to by a “posh establishment” individual.

While talking to Mr Blair at the dinner, she apparently requested to meet Mr Campbell that night after the meal.

The 65-year-old said their encounter that evening was so successful that it led to more dinners between Mr Campbell and his partner, Princess Diana and the Blairs.

Mr Campbell described how their meeting took place on the podcast, saying: “It was local elections night so Terry, Tony’s driver, came to pick me up about nine o’clock.

“We had to be at our old headquarters for when the exit polls and all that came out.

“We arrived at this posh Belgravia or Chelsea house, I ring on the bell and say ‘would you tell Mr Blair that his car’s here and we’ve got to go’.”

He then recounted that he got back into the car, awaiting the Blairs’ return, when there was a tap on the window.

‘There’s somebody that wants to see you’

“Next thing, tap on the window and Tony’s standing there,” the father-of-three continued.

“He says ‘there’s somebody that wants to see you’.

“Do you know what her first words were? Her first words to him were ‘what’s Alastair Campbell really like? I’d love to meet him’.

“He was really p----d off, so p----d off.”

Mr Campbell, who now hosts the successful podcast The Rest is Politics, said that Princess Diana came outside to meet him shortly after.

“So we’re standing there in the middle of the road with cars whizzing by, chatting in the street,” he added.

“Tony was standing there like ‘I’m meant to be the main guy, what’s going on here?’

“Diana said ‘god, wouldn’t this be a great picture?’”

Mr Campbell then admitted that his partner, Fiona Miller, had told him she thought Princess Diana had “fancied” him.

Their initial meeting led to more dinners altogether, with Mr Campbell adding: “Tony couldn’t decide whether he was a statesman or a flirt - I had no such trouble.

“At one point she said, ‘I hear you drink a lot of tea’.

“I said ‘I do drink a lot of tea, yes’.

“She said ‘I’d love to make you a cup of tea’.

“She made me a cup of tea - it was a perfect cup of tea.”