Queen keeps her eye on Margaret

The Queen is deeply concerned about the health of Princess Margaret and will spend as much time as possible with her younger sister during the summer break at Balmoral, it was revealed yesterday.

The wheelchair-bound Princess looked frail and bloated as she joined other members of the Royal Family for the Queen Mother's 101st birthday celebrations at Clarence House on Saturday.

Margaret, who will be 71 this month, joined her sister and mother at the Royal Ballet in the evening but had to leave before the interval.

'Princess Margaret is in a very bad way,' said a senior member of the Royal Household.

The Queen and Prince Philip flew to Scotland yesterday. The Queen Mother will join them tomorrow, although there is no set date for Margaret's arrival yet.

'The Queen wants to be as close to her sister as possible, and Margaret will be going to Balmoral very soon,' added the royal source.

'She wouldn't be travelling all the way up to Scotland if her condition was life threatening, but there is great concern about her.'

At Balmoral, the Princess will be monitored constantly by medical staff. Her children Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto are in constant touch.

In spite of Saturday's warm weather, Margaret was covered in a heavy blanket and wore large dark glasses outside Clarence House, her mother's London residence.

Her left arm was in a sling and she looked confused and dazed, with aides having to tell her what was happening as she gazed blankly ahead.

While the Queen and her mother stayed for the whole of Saturday's Royal Ballet performance, which ended at 11.40pm, Margaret left at 9.30, ten minutes before the interval. A bystander said: 'She was in her wheelchair and she was promptly pushed into the back of her car by ramp.

'The car was backed up right up to the side door of the Opera House to stop pictures being taken.'

Three strokes - the last earlier this year - have left the Princess partially blind and very weak.

She once enjoyed a whirl of society parties and exotic holidays, but her 60-a-day cigarette habit took its toll and is believed to have been responsible for the illness that led to part of her left lung being removed in 1985.

Margaret is now a shadow of the fun-loving, chain-smoking, hard-drinking socialite she once was, and her public appearances are becoming fewer and fewer.

For years she spent much of her time on the paradise island of Mustique, but her home there has been sold.

It was there in the Caribbean that she suffered her first stroke three years ago. In 1999 she scalded her right foot and ankle in the bath at her Mustique home, causing injuries which confined her to a wheelchair.

Shortly before Christmas last year she suffered a second stroke followed by a severe loss of appetite.

She was admitted to the private King Edward VII Hospital in central London - where her mother last week received a blood transfusion for anaemia.

In March Margaret was treated at Kensington Palace for a third stroke.

That attack prevented her from taking part in any of the Queen's 75th birthday celebrations the following month.

Christopher Warwick, the princess's official biographer, said last night: 'The pictures outside Clarence House spoke volumes about her condition but it seems to be that she's battling on.

'I know that she was very keen to be with her mother on her birthday. Margaret is a survivor and her family will give her all the love and support they can.'