MORRISSEY has claimed he turned down the chance to deliver an alternative Christmas Day speech because he said he did not want to "be trading slaps" with the Queen over the festive period.

MORRISSEY has claimed he turned down the chance to deliver an alternative Christmas Day speech because he said he did not want to "be trading slaps" with the Queen over the festive period.

The controversial singer said he had been approached to deliver Channel 4's alternative Christmas message, which has been given in the past by Quentin Crisp, Jamie Oliver and the parents of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Writing on a fan website, he said: "My view that the monarchy should be quietly dismantled for the good of England is reasonably well-known, but I don't think Christmas Day is quite the time to be trading slaps."

"The Queen should be allowed the impassioned trance of her annual address to the British people, if only to once again prove that, in her frozen posture, she has nothing to offer and nothing to say, and she has no place in modern Britain except as a figure of repression; no independent thought required."