Buckingham Palace has defended footage from 1933 that shows a young Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen, performing a Nazi salute with her family at Balmoral.

The film, obtained by The Sun newspaper, shows the six or seven-year-old princess joining her mother and her uncle Prince Edward in raising an arm in salute, as she played alongside her younger sister, Princess Margaret.

A Palace spokesman says it is "disappointing" the newspaper has exploited a film shot eight decades ago, and from Her Majesty's personal family archive.