LONDON: UK lawmakers stepped up calls Monday for the government to formally strip Prince Andrew of his titles, as the royal family braced for even more damaging revelations in his accuser Virginia Giuffre’s upcoming posthumous memoir.
Andrew’s already tarnished reputation has been left in tatters by a steady stream of damaging allegations about his friendship with the late convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buckingham Palace signalled it had finally had enough Friday when — under pressure from his brother King Charles III — Andrew announced he was renouncing his title of Duke of York.
Charles’s son and heir to the throne, Prince William was consulted about the decision, and UK media reported at the weekend he planned to banish his uncle even further from royal life when he becomes king, including barring him from his coronation.
Andrew, 65, who has denied any wrongdoing, agreed in 2022 to pay Giuffre a multimillion-dollar settlement to end her civil sexual assault case against him.
In Giuffre’s book “Nobody’s Girl”, she reportedly says she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with Andrew three times, including when she was 17.
Andrew has denied ever meeting her. But the BBC said, quoting royal sources, that Buckingham Palace was preparing for “more days of pain ahead”.
Andrew’s scandals have proved a huge embarrassment to the royal family, and Giuffre’s memoir is set to be published on the eve of a high-profile visit to the Vatican by Charles, who is due to end centuries of tradition and pray with Pope Leo XIV.
A number of MPs have made it clear they believe parliament should not just rely on Andrew’s voluntary agreement not to use his title.
Instead, they say parliament should act to strip the title from the late Queen Elizabeth II’s second son.
Rachael Maskell, MP for the historic northern English city of York from which Andrew’s title comes, has proposed a bill that would allow the king or a parliamentary committee to take away the title completely.
The MP, who sits as an independent, said she would be writing to ministers this week to urge them to back the bill.
There are also calls for Andrew to lose the title of prince — given to him by right as the son of the late queen.
George Foulkes, a Labour member of the upper House of Lords, on Sunday also wrote to both the Lords and the lower House of Commons to ask for a review of the rules on asking questions about the royal family in parliament.
According to Foulkes, questions he previously wanted to pose about Andrew’s time as a UK special representative for trade and investment were rejected by parliamentary clerks.
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