There are secret kabbalists at Buckingham Palace, according to the head of the Kabbalah Centre in London.

Marcus Weston claimed that members of the royal family were among those who had taken up the ancient Jewish mystical tradition and signed agreements preventing them from talking about it.

He told The Times: “There’s a host of people who sign confidentiality agreements, whether it is royal family members, some celebs, some business people.

“We have taught in orphanages in Africa, in tsunami-hit areas in the Philippines, in South American favelas, in gangland Bronx, some of the biggest financial houses in the city, in Buckingham Palace, in government, in prisons. Literally top to bottom.”

He declined to elaborate on who among the royals were Kabbalah devotees.

Mr Weston made the claim amid reports that the controversial Kabbalah Centre – which has been made famous by its celebrity following, counting Madonna among its practitioners – is expanding after the number of followers in London doubled in the last two years.

Mr Weston hit the headlines in 2013 when leading rabbis protested against his plans to speak at Limmud - arguing that, by inviting him, organisers were “opening the door to cults”. As a result, he was barred from attending.

Critics of the Kabbalah Centre, which was founded by Rabbi Philip Berg , a former insurance salesman from New York, complain about its money-making methods. The London Centre alone made around £6 million in 2013, through selling – among other things – “blessed” water and red-string bracelets said to ward off the evil eye.