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Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is facing mounting calls to answer questions in the United States about Jeffrey Epstein following his dramatic fall from grace including the stripping of all his remaining titles.
King Charles made the historic decision this week to remove his brother’s royal status – he will no longer be known as a prince – and evict him from the 30-room Royal Lodge on the Windsor Estate.
It came after years of embarrassment for the monarchy due to allegations made against Andrew. His accuser, the late Virginia Giuffre, claimed that she was forced to have sex with the royal when she was aged 17 after she was trafficked by the paedophile financier.
Andrew vehemently denies the allegations, but the latest development in the disgraced royal’s fall from grace has prompted calls from politicians and campaigners for him to finally answer questions on his ties to Epstein.
Ms Giuffre’s sister-in-law said if she was speaking to Andrew, she would ask him to think of his daughters and “come clean”.
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Asked what she would say to Andrew, Amanda Roberts told Sky News: “I would say, and I said this earlier, ‘Think of your daughters. They were the same age. Think of what you would do had something like this happened to them. What would you want their perpetrator to do?
“I think it’s far beyond time to come clean. You were best friends with this man and there are so many things that you could help bring to light.
“Virginia deserves that and every single survivor that has been entrapped in that sex trafficking ring deserves that from you.
“If you can give an inkling of justice, then it should be on you to do’.”
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Calls have also come from within government, with a trade minister saying Andrew should answer questions from US authorities if asked to do so.
Describing Andrew as now “an ordinary member of the public”, Sir Chris Bryant said he should “comply” with any future requests.
He said: “I think that just as with any ordinary member of the public, if there were requests from another jurisdiction of this kind, I would expect any decently minded person to comply with that request.
“So I feel exactly the same in this situation.”
He added: “What I’m basically saying is that I think that if Andrew is asked to do something by a Senate committee, then I would have thought that he would want to comply.”
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Ms Giuffre’s brother has also called on the royal family to do more, and said the King should tell Donald Trump to “put your big boy pants on” and release the Epstein files.
Saying he would welcome a conversation with the monarch “with open arms”, he added he believed Andrew “should be investigated”.
Speaking about the King’s decision to remove Andrew’s titles, Sky Roberts told Sky News: “But it’s still, it’s not enough in the sense that he’s still walking around a free man.
“I mean, let’s not be naive that he’s not going to be living on the side of the road here, he’s still in a very, let’s say, cush spot… He should be investigated, let’s put it that way.”
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Recent weeks have seen pressure mount on Andrew grow once again, after the publication of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir and as details of his “peppercorn rent” agreement on the Royal Lodge emerged.
The Independent understands that Andrew will be able to live at the Royal Lodge until the end of January, before he moves to a property on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, funded privately by the King.
However, discussions are understood to be ongoing over which home on the Sandringham estate he will be moving to.
Andrew’s lease agreement also contained a clause which stated the Crown Estate would have to pay Andrew around £558,000 if he gave up the lease. However, it is understood that the agreement still needs to be “reviewed and processed” by the Crown Estate.
It is also understood that Sarah Ferguson has made clear that she would not accept, as had been suggested by courtiers in earlier negotiations with Andrew over his departure, any home or financial assistance from the royal family.
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On Friday, it was announced his name had been struck from the official roll of the peerage, marking a key step in formally removing his titles.
However, questions over Andrew’s place in the line of succession are now likely to be asked, experts have said.
He remains eighth in line to the throne, behind Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex, despite now being known simply as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, effectively living as a commoner.
Majesty Magazine’s managing editor Joe Little said: “Clearly it would take quite a catastrophe for him to become king given all those that are ahead of him. So might it not have been tidier to withdraw him from the line of succession?”
But there have been calls to bring in legislation to stop any chance, however remote, of him becoming King.
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Downing Street said there were no plans for legislative changes, when asked about potentially making it easier to strip peerages in the future or remove Andrew from the line of succession.
“From the government’s perspective, there are no plans to make legislative changes,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman said.
He added: “The government is focused on using parliamentary time to improve the lives of working people.”
