Campaigners have today called on the Queen and the government to come clean over royal lobbying in the 1970s, as revealed by the Guardian.

Documents uncovered in the official archives show the Queen lobbied government to ensure new transparency legislation didn't reveal the extent or nature of her own investments.

Graham Smith of campaign group Republic said today:

"We've always suspected that there is a lot of lobbying going on behind closed doors, by the Queen and other royals, to protect their own private interests."

"This is a clear abuse of power for personal gain, and it cannot be ignored."

"The archane Royal Consent rule needs to be scrapped and the Royal Household needs to be held to the same standards as everyone else."

"Britain's head of state has secretly lobbied for a law to be tailor-made to protect her financial investments, directly contrary to the purpose of the law being passed by parliament."

"There needs to be a radical shake-up of royal secrecy and new rules to ensure royal lobbying stops. Until that happens we cannot claim that in the UK we're all equal before the law."

"We have good reason to suspect the same kind of secret lobbying happened to strengthen royal protection from the Freedom of Information Act in 2010, and to introduce the Sovereign Grant Act in 2011. Enough is enough, this blatant abuse of power has to stop."