Andrew is an 'embarrassment' and should be booted out of mansion, Robert Jenrick blasts
Shadow Justice Secretary says it is “disgraceful” taxpayers are effectively subsidising him to live in a 30-room luxury home with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson
Prince Andrew should be kicked out of his Windsor mansion and vanish from public life as the British people are “sick” of him, the shadow justice secretary has said.
Robert Jenrick believes the royal has become an embarrassment to both his family and the country. He added that it is “disgraceful” that taxpayers are effectively subsidising him to live in a 30-room luxury home with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
Pressure mounted on paedophile Jeffrey Epstein's pal Andrew today to vacate Royal Lodge after it emerged he had been living there for more than two decades while paying a “peppercorn rent.” Senior Tory Jenrick said it was “about time Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private” as “the public are sick of him.”
He added: “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.”
Documents released by the Crown Estate, which manages royal property holdings, show the Duke of York signed a 75-year lease on Royal Lodge in 2003, paying £1 million upfront. Since then, he has paid “one peppercorn” of rent “if demanded” each year.
According to the National Audit Office, the 65-year-old father-of-two also spent £7.5 million refurbishing the Grade II-listed home in 2005. The lease even includes a clause entitling him to around £558,000 in compensation from the Crown Estate should he ever surrender the property.
Shadow justice secretary Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think the taxpayer in any way should be footing the bill for him to live in luxury homes ever again.”
His remarks come amid growing anger that profits from the Crown Estate, which go to the Treasury for the nation’s finances, could be losing out due to the Duke’s long-standing arrangement.
MPs from the Commons Treasury Committee and Public Accounts Committee are now expected to scrutinise how the lease was handled.
Dame Meg Hillier, who chairs the Treasury Committee, said: “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.”
Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart added: “Andrew should show some contrition by returning every penny of rent that he’s not paid while disgracing his office.”
The row over his lavish lifestyle comes just days after Andrew confirmed he was relinquishing the use of his Duke of York title and military honours.
The move followed renewed scrutiny of his ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and coincided with the release of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl.
Andrew vehemently denies her allegations that she was forced to have sex with him three times after being trafficked by Epstein.