Andrew faces humiliation in the Commons
MPs plan to defy convention and discuss stripping Andrew of his titles for good as pressure to leave Royal Lodge builds.
Prince Andrew faces a pincer movement from parliament and Buckingham Palace to strip him of his dukedom and banish him from his 30-room mansion in Windsor.
MPs are set to discuss Andrew’s future, defying years of convention that usually prevents politicians from criticising the royal family.
The Liberal Democrats have signalled that they intend to use their next Opposition Day debate to allow members to consider officially removing Andrew’s Duke of York title and discuss his continued use of Royal Lodge. Although such debates are rarely binding, it will allow the Commons to “express its will” and heap pressure on the government and the King to act.
Andrew, 65, agreed last weekend that he would no longer use his title after the spiralling scandal over his links to Jeffrey Epstein, the late pedophile financier. However, an act of parliament is required to formally remove the dukedom.
The prince is in talks with Buckingham Palace as efforts are made to force him out of his grade II listed home in Windsor Great Park. Public anger over his refusal to leave Royal Lodge came to a head last week when The Times reported he had not paid rent for more than two decades.
Although Andrew believes he has a “cast-iron lease”, he may agree to move out if he gets financial compensation and is found a suitable alternative property. A source who knows the King said: “Charles has to say to [Andrew’s] face, ‘There’s no choice here, you must now leave Royal Lodge ... this is doing real damage to the monarchy, you’ve got to move.’”
In other developments:
- A former royal protection officer asked by Andrew to dig up dirt on Virginia Giuffre after she accused the prince of sexually abusing her is understood to have told Scotland Yard he did not recall the incident in 2011.
- The prince paid up to $1 million to a PR expert who sought to discredit Giuffre’s claims by enlisting the help of an internet troll.
- Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former partner, is poised to start her latest legal bid in the US to overturn her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking offences.
- Pressure was growing on the government to make public all the records relating to Andrew’s time as Britain’s special representative for international trade.
- A royal source said Elizabeth II’s indulgence of her second son “left an unexploded bomb for Charles”.
By convention, MPs are not allowed to criticise royals in the Commons. Opposition Day debates are one of the only ways the conduct of a royal can be raised. According to Erskine May, the guide to parliamentary procedure, such a debate permits “critical language of a kind which would not be allowed in speeches in debate”.
Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has separately called for Andrew and his landlord, the Crown Estate, to give evidence to MPs on an influential select committee about the terms of the lease on Royal Lodge.
A party source said: “The first thing we need is proper transparency and accountability. Clearly there’s a huge amount of public concern and people deserve answers, especially on how their taxpayers’ money is being spent. The longer this whole sorry saga drags on the worse it will be.”
The Palace and the government are engaged in a stand-off. The King has so far been unwilling to ask for an act of parliament be brought forward to strip Andrew of his title, and the government refuses to do so without a formal request from Charles.
It emerged last week that the prince, who lives at the property with his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, 66, is entitled to stay on a peppercorn rent for 75 years. He has already paid at least $17 million for the lease and refurbishments.
Last night (Saturday), officials disclosed that Andrew’s daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, do pay rent on properties at St James’s Palace and Kensington Palace. However, they would not confirm if it was paid at a market rate.
Scotland Yard is on alert for further revelations about Andrew in documents disclosed to a congressional committee in the US. Officers are paying close attention to a memoir by Giuffre that was posthumously published last week.
Giuffre, who took her own life this year, aged 41, accused the prince of sexually assaulting her three times as a teenager.
The Met is unlikely to have sufficient evidence to warrant questioning Andrew and said it was “considering whether any further assessment or review is necessary”.
The Sunday Times
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