A TOMB which could hold the bones of Richard III “looks like it has been designed by Ikea”, a descendant of the king has claimed as a battle between York and Leicester over the monarch’s final resting place intensifies.

Vanessa Roe – Richard’s 16th great-niece – has strongly criticised plans for his remains unveiled by Leicester Cathedral.

The king, whose skeleton was found under a car park in the Midlands city, spent much of his childhood in Middleham and the design includes a tomb made of Swaledale fossil limestone.

The cathedral also plans to inlay a large Yorkist white rose in the floor beneath the tomb, but Ms Roe, a member of the Plantagenet Alliance which hopes to have the king – killed at the 1485 Battle of Bosworth – reburied in York, said: “The idea of having a Yorkshire rose under the tomb which is made of Yorkshire stone says all you need to know about where he should be buried – it tells the world he should be buried in Yorkshire.

“The tomb doesn’t even have his name on it, his crown or his sign, a boar. It looks like it has been designed by Ikea.”

The Plantagenet Alliance successfully applied for a judicial review into the decision to make Leicester the king’s final resting place and Ms Roe said the cathedral had shown arrogance by revealing its plans for the tomb before knowing the outcome of the legal challenge.

She said: “Leicester would be the last place he would want to be buried.”