The British papers and politicians are piling pressure on Prince Andrew and King Charles in recent days. This hasn’t happened since 2019, when the palace completely misread the public reaction to Andrew’s BBC interview. The public and political backlash to that interview was so significant, QEII had to order Andrew to resign from public life. It turned out to be a face-saving half-measure, but still, she didn’t even want to do that, so it was something. What’s happening this week might be even bigger. They dusted off Norman Baker – a longtime critic of the royals and their shadowy financials – to write a piece in the Mail about how the f–k Andrew can afford to live in (rent-free) Royal Lodge, and how it’s a disastrous look for the Windsors in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis – you can read that Mail piece here. But what’s really extraordinary is just how many British politicians are talking about these issues openly.
Sir Keir Starmer and No 10 have refused to comment on Andrew’s future at Royal Lodge. The prime minister’s official spokesman said he would not “get drawn into hypotheticals about living arrangements of members of the royal family”.
The approach has led to frustration among ministers, who believe that Starmer needs to take a stronger position. One said: “We should be throwing him under the bus. He does us no favours. Privileges are not a right, they’re bestowed on you by the public….He’s living rent-free in Royal Lodge, despite having shown zero remorse. He should stop sponging off the state, given he’s not a working royal. I’ve had lots of emails from people demanding he be stripped of his titles.”
Another said: “I don’t know why the government can’t take a view on it. It’s frankly preposterous. Not least because historically parliament did take a view on these things … Living in the lodge rent-free means there’s not more money going into the Crown Estate, which would in turn be fed back to the exchequer.”
A third called Andrew’s continued residency in the lodge “pretty detestable”, while another said: “It’s outrageous he’s continuing to live there. It makes me really angry thinking about him sitting there, totally idle. I don’t know how it’s funded but it’s not like he’s doing a hard day’s work. Visitors to Royal Lodge reported he was sitting around playing video games. I don’t know why he should be doing that in a mansion on the Windsor Estate.”
A group of MPs have also written to Starmer calling for the government to formally strip Andrew of his titles, while others are preparing a bill to put before the Commons. Four out of five Britons want Andrew to be formally stripped of his dukedom, a poll shows. The YouGov survey showed that 63 per cent of nearly 6,700 adults questioned were “strongly” in favour of formal removal of the dukedom and 17 per cent “somewhat” supporting the idea, while 6 per cent were opposed to it and 14 per cent did not know.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, called for Andrew to leave Royal Lodge, saying he had disgraced the nation and the public were “sick” of him. In the comments, which went well beyond the Conservatives’ official position that Andrew’s future “is a matter for the Palace”, Jenrick said the prince should no longer be allowed to live in homes owned by the taxpayer.
“It’s about time Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private and make his own way in life,” Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “He has disgraced himself, he has embarrassed the royal family time and again. I don’t see why the taxpayer, frankly, should continue to foot the bill at all. The public are sick of him.”
Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury select committee, suggested MPs could look into the Crown Estate’s handling of the lease.
“Where money flows, particularly where taxpayers’ money is involved, or taxpayers’ interests are involved, parliament has a responsibility to have a light shine upon that and we need to have answers,” she said.
When asked whether he was comfortable with Andrew remaining at Royal Lodge, Peter Kyle, the business and trade secretary, said: “I think it’s pretty obvious what I think as a person. I am deeply, deeply affected, moved and disgusted by what Virginia Giuffre and others went through.”
This is a unique moment in royal history actually. None of this ^^ happened after Andrew’s 2019 BBC Newsnight interview. None of this happened after QEII and then-Prince Charles signed off on Andrew settling out of court with Virginia Giuffre in 2022. Finally, there’s a majority public opinion and enough political backing to actually change something. While I still believe that the deal struck between Andrew and King Charles last week involved Andrew staying at Royal Lodge, the next move is that the government will begin to apply pressure to Charles to evict Andrew. I don’t think Charles can stick to his end of the deal for much longer, not in the face of this kind of loud, mainstream political pressure. Ten bucks says that, by the end of business on Friday, someone announces that Andrew will move out of Royal Lodge.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
