LONDON, Jan 20: British police have arrested a journalist for trying to get a job at Queen Elizabeth’s London palace for an undercover report.

A spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police said the 25-year-old woman had been arrested on Thursday after they discovered bogus details on her application for a job at Buckingham Palace.

The News of the World, a Sunday tabloid, said its reporter Bethany Usher ‘was engaged in a legitimate journalistic exercise investigating security’ at the palace.

The stunt was an apparent attempt to repeat a much-heralded scoop by an arch-rival tabloid, the Daily Mirror, which had an undercover reporter get a job as a palace footman and work there for two months in 2004.

The Mirror reporter’s description of lax security at the palace caused major embarrassment when it was published on the eve of a state visit by US president George Bush.

A spokeswoman for the News of the World said Ms Usher was not caught as a result of improved palace employment vetting, but because another rival newspaper had tipped the palace off.

Ms Usher was released on bail and ordered to return to a police station on Feb 9, the police spokeswoman said. —Reuters