Britney Spears’ former estate manager has claimed that the singer could be under her conservatorship for the rest of her life.

The legal battle over the conservatorship has continued this week, with the latest development seeing the singer’s father Jamie withdrawing his petition to reinstate lawyer Andrew Wallet as a co-conservator of Spears’ estate.

Spears’ lawyers argued last month that Wallet was “uniquely unsuitable” for the role of conservator, and her father withdrew the petition in favour of Wallet yesterday (October 5). Spears does not want her father to continue as the sole conservator of her estate, and is asking for an independent wealth management firm to be appointed instead.

In a new interview with The Daily Mail, Wallet warned that Spears could be bound by the conservatorship for the rest of her life and criticised the people behind the #FreeBritney movement – claiming that “there are people lurking in the shadows pushing an agenda.”

“Britney is in a conservatorship for good reason but a lot of the #FreeBritney people have no experience with the law,” he said, later adding of the alleged “people lurking in the shadows”: “I can’t say who but it is hurting Britney, she’s the only one who gets hurt by all this.”

Wallet went on to argue that Spears’ conservatorship “isn’t in place to make her do things she doesn’t want to do, it’s in place to protect her.”

“If she doesn’t want to work, she doesn’t have to work. No one can force her,” he said.

“I have had people in conservatorship who have got themselves right and it has been terminated, but you don’t see that because they’re not people in the public eye. Other people can be in a conservatorship their whole lives.

“I’m not saying that’s going to be Britney, but it could happen to her.”

Last month, it was reported that Spears had given her support to the fan-organised #FreeBritney movement that is backing her case in the legal battle.