Former government minister accidentally ate Queen's dogs' biscuits during a lunch at Windsor Castle, new book says

• Alan Johnson, a former Labour minister, accidentally ate treats meant for the Queen's corgis, a book claims.
• He snacked on the dog biscuits while sitting next to Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in 2008.

Former UK health minister Alan Johnson accidentally ate dog biscuits meant for the Queen's corgis dogs during a lunch at Windsor Castle in 2008, according to a new book, per The Guardian.

Johnson, a Labour MP from 1997 to 2017, reportedly remarked that he had "particularly enjoyed the cheese and the unusual dark biscuits" after eating lunch next to Queen Elizabeth II, royal biographer Robert Hardman claims.

Johnson's colleague Paul Murphy took it upon himself to inform him that he had been snacking on pet food, Hardman writes in his new book "Queen of Our Times."

"No, the dark biscuits were for the corgis!" Murphy said to Johnson's amusement, the book claims.

The Queen has had more than 30 corgis since 1945. Her former chef Darren McGrady told Insider that he prepared chicken, beef, rabbit, liver, rice, and cabbage for the royal dogs.

The monarch's dogs frequently sit in on high-profile meetings, Insider's Talia Lakritz reported.

In this meeting, Johnson told Hardman that the Queen was feeding snacks to her corgis while chatting to him.

Last month, Johnson told the hosts on a Channel 4 cooking show: "I did make a faux pas. She was there. There were cheese and biscuits. Her Majesty was tossing some biscuits to the dogs, to the corgis," The Daily Express reported.

"I didn't see that, and I took one of those biscuits and put some cheese on it and ate it and was told, 'I hate to tell you, but they are for the dogs'."

Johnson described the "informality" of the lunch to the biographer and said that he had a "whale of a time" and it felt as if he had known the Queen "for years," The Guardian reported.

The lunch took place shortly after an inquest into the death of Princess Diana found she had been unlawfully killed.

Johnson and Murphy decided not to talk about the late princess but the Queen raised it herself and talked about it in the "most frank way," Hardman's book claims.

Insider reached out to Johnson for comment on Saturday afternoon but did not immediately receive a response.