PRINCE Philip's decision to step down from his official royal duties has not been taken for medical reasons and has the full support of the Queen, it was stressed today.

Prime Minister Theresa May paid tribute to the Queen's consort, saying he has given the monarch "steadfast support", while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the duke's ''clear sense of public duty'' had inspired people for more than 60 years.

The Queen's public schedule will continue as normal but it is understood other members of the royal family will "step up" in support of the monarch in her role as head of state.

A royal aide said: "This is not a decision taken for medical reasons. The duke decided this is the right time; he's nearly 96 and most people will have retired 30 years earlier."

Philip has many interests away from public life from being an avid reader to supporting the sport of carriage driving, although he does not compete.

The aide added: "He's looking forward to enjoying more of his leisure time."

The Duke of Edinburgh has been known for his legendary gaffes over the years.

He has shocked and sometimes delighted the public with his outspoken comments and clangers.

His reputation for plain speaking has often led to controversy, but he was once branded a 'national treasure' by the press for his inability to curb his off-the-cuff remarks, while he claims to have been misunderstood...

Here are some of Prince Philip's (in)famous phrases:

  • "British women can't cook" (in Britain in 1966).
  • "I declare this thing open, whatever it is." (on a visit to Canada in 1969).
  • "Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed" (during the 1981 recession).
  • "If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." (at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting).
  • "Yak, yak, yak; come on get a move on." (shouted from the deck of Britannia in Belize in 1994 to the Queen who was chatting to her hosts on the quayside).
  • "We didn't have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun, asking 'Are you all right? Are you sure you don't have a ghastly problem?' You just got on with it." (about the Second World War commenting on modern stress counselling for servicemen in 1995).
  • "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?" (to a driving instructor in Oban, Scotland, during a 1995 walkabout).
  • "If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?" (in 1996, amid calls to ban firearms after the Dunblane shooting).
  • "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed." (to British students in China, during the 1986 state visit).
  • "Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease." (in Australia, in 1992, when asked to stroke a Koala bear).
  • "You managed not to get eaten, then?" (suggesting to a student in 1998 who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea that tribes there were still cannibals).
  • In Germany, in 1997, he welcomed German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at a trade fair as "Reichskanzler" - the last German leader who used the title was Adolf Hitler.
  • "I wish he'd turn the microphone off." (muttered at the Royal Variety Performance as he watched Sir Elton John perform, 2001).
  • "You look like a suicide bomber." (to a young female officer wearing a bullet-proof vest on Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, in 2002).
  • "Well, you didn't design your beard too well, did you?" (to designer Stephen Judge about his tiny goatee beard in July 2009).
  • "Bits are beginning to drop off." (on approaching his 90th birthday, 2011)
  • "Most stripping is done by hand." (to 83-year-old Mars factory worker Audrey Cook when discussing how she used to strip or cut Mars Bars by hand in April 2013)
  • "(Children) go to school because their parents don't want them in the house." (prompting giggles from Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban after campaigning for the right of girls to go to school without fear - October 2013)
  • "If the man had succeeded in abducting Anne, she would have given him a hell of a time while in captivity." (On a gunman who tried to kidnap the Princess Royal in 1974).
  • "If it doesn't fart or eat hay, she's not interested." (on the Princess Royal)
  • "Where did you get that hat?" (supposedly to Queen at her Coronation).