Prince Andrew asked to leave public life forever after embarrassing royals: Latest

The SNP has tabled a motion to pressure Sir Keir Starmer’s government to formally strip Andrew of his title, which would require an Act of Parliament.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has tabled an early day motion (EDM) which allows MPs to express an opinion, promote a cause or support a position. It is rare to have debate on them.

There are 14 signatures supporting the EDM, all from SNP, plaid Cymru or Green Party MPs.

There are many people who know well the shame and horror it feels when a parent is accused of something terrible. Yet few have experienced it under the same high-beam public scrutiny as Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Their life is a rare kind of hell.

For their own sake – and certainly for their young children – the royal princesses need to distance themselves from their disgraced father, says Samuel Fishwick:

Virginia Giuffre’s brother has urged the police watchdog to review the Metropolitan Police’s decision not to continue their investigation into Prince Andrew’s allegations against him.

Giuffre’s family say she was “gaslit” by police and authorities in both the UK and US which was a “kick in the stomach” for her.

He has asked the Met Police to reopen their investigation into Ms Giuffre’s allegation that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17, an allegation he vehemently denies.

And he said that if the London force would not take action, he felt the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) should review the decision.

Six months after her death, Virginia Giuffre’s memoir reveals harrowing new details of being trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein.

Since the book was published on Tuesday, here are some of the biggest revelations:

Told about the first time she met Andrew

Giuffre describes being taken shopping by Ghislaine Maxwell in London before the meeting. At her flat, they were photographed together before going out for dinner and to a nightclub.

She alleged that she was told to “do for her what you do for Jeffrey” and then after they had sex, the prince thanked her “later in his clipped British accent.”

Orgy with Andrew on Epstein’s Island

Giuffre alleges she had sex with Prince Andrew for the third time during an orgy with eight other young girls on Epstein’s Caribbean island of Little St. James.

She wrote: “Epstein, Andy, and about eight other young girls, and I had sex together. All the other girls appeared to be under 18 and did not actually speak English.”

Giuffre was ‘surprised’ Andrew was ‘stupid enough’ to meet Epstein publicly after conviction

After Epstein was released from prison for pimping a minor for prostitution, Giuffre wrote that she was shocked to see a photo of her with Andrew in New York’s Central Park in 2011.

Andrew’s Newsnight interview was ‘jet fuel’ for his legal team

As Giuffre wrote that she was considering filing a lawsuit against Andrew in 2019, she said she noticed that the royal had done an interview with Emily Maitlis on BBC Newsnight, at which she said she had “no recollection” of meeting Giuffre.

Giuffre wrote: “As devastating as this interview was for Prince Andrew, for my legal team it was like an injection of jet fuel. Its contents will help us build a stronger case against the Prince.”

Andrew ‘hid behind the gate of Balmoral’

In August 2021, Giuffre’s team filed a legal suit alleging, she wrote, that “Prince Andrew raped and assaulted me when I was a minor, causing serious and permanent harm to me”.

He wrote that when the action was initiated, Andrew could not be served with the papers because he had “fled to Queen Elizabeth’s Balmoral Castle in Scotland and hid behind its well-guarded gates”.

Caitlin Doherty, political correspondent for The Independent, reports:

The Liberal Democrats have said Prince Andrew should “return every penny of rent he has not paid while disrespecting his office”.

The party’s Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart said on Tuesday that “the longer this whole tragic saga continues, the more disgraceful and embarrassing his presence in public life will become”.

In a statement on Tuesday, he said: “Andrew has failed our King and the Royal Family and betrayed the values ​​of the British people.

“The longer this whole tragic saga continues, the more humiliating and embarrassing his presence in public life will become.

“He should show some remorse by returning every penny of rent which he has not paid while bringing disgrace to his office.”

Pressure is mounting on Prince Andrew to leave his 30-bedroom mansion as it emerged he has paid “pepper rent” on the property for more than 20 years.

Senior Tory Robert Jenrick said that “it is time for Prince Andrew to resign himself to living in private” because “the public is fed up with him”.

Parliamentary committees may also look into the Crown Estate’s running of Andrew’s Royal Lodge residence at Windsor.

A copy of the leasehold agreement shared by the Crown Estate shows Andrew signed a 75-year lease on the property in 2003.

This revealed that he paid £1 million for the lease and since then he has paid “one peppercorn” per year as rent “on demand”.

Andrew correctly guessed Virginia Giuffre’s age at 17 when they first met, writing in his memoir, nobody’s girl,

She said that in 2001 Ghislaine Maxwell, later a convicted sex trafficker, took her to Maxwell’s London flat to buy clothes to wear for a meeting.

At the meeting, Maxwell, who was “more polite than usual,” asked the then-Duke to guess Ms. Giuffre’s age, and Andrew, who was 41 at the time, correctly guessed the age at 17, Ms. Giuffre wrote.

She said she was “paid $15,000 to serve a tabloid guy named ‘Randy Andy’.”

Caitlin Doherty, political correspondent for The Independent, reports:

The SNP has lodged an initial motion calling for “the Government to take legislative steps to remove the freedoms granted to Prince Andrew”.

As of Tuesday morning, the proposal has 13 supporters, all of whom are SNP or plaid Cymru MPs.

Early day motions are presented for debate in the Commons, but no date is set for them, and as a result little discussion takes place in the House.

However, they are a way for MPs to put on record their views on a certain issue.

According to the Parliament’s website, “By attracting the signatures of other MPs, they can be used to demonstrate the level of parliamentary support for a particular cause or viewpoint.”