MPs lodge parliamentary motion to strip Prince Andrew of dukedom | Prince Andrew

MPs have moved to table a motion in parliament to strip Prince Andrew of the dukedom, a move rarely allowed in the House of Commons.

The government is facing mounting pressure over the prince’s residence at the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor. Here it turned out that the prince had not paid rent for more than twenty years.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she believed people should “pay his way” when asked whether Andrew would be allowed to remain there following new allegations against him about his relationship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Reeves said he did not know the details of the living arrangements but said they needed to be agreed fairly. He told the BBC: “He should not have been associated with a convicted pedophile and I think the new revelations in this book make for very sober reading and I’m sure everyone will think about it and form their own judgment.”

Times reported Under the lease, which was released under freedom of information laws, Andrew was said to have paid £1 million in rent and at least £7.5 million in renovations, but has only paid “one peppercorn (if requested)” in rent each year since 2003 and has the right to live there until 2078.

The lease suggests that the royal estate would owe around £558,000 if Prince Andrew reneged on the lease.

The crackdown comes amid new allegations about the prince in a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein survivor who said she had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions. He also said the prince’s team was trying to “hire internet trolls” to “force” him online.

Ghostwriter Amy Wallace said she would “consider it a victory to be forced to give them up voluntarily, by any means necessary.” [the titles] up,” calling it a “symbolic gesture.”

“Virginia wanted all the men she trafficked against their will to be held to account, and this is just one of them,” he told BBC’s News Night.

There are several ways lawmakers can take action to officially remove the titles. This requires an act of parliament, which the government does not intend to initiate unless requested by the palace. On Tuesday, the SNP tabled an early motion (EDM) to formally remove the title of Duke of York, which Prince Andrew has said he will no longer use.

MPs are not allowed to criticize royals during parliamentary debates, but EDMs, which usually carry little weight in parliament, are one of the only ways to elevate a royal’s behavior.

Prince Andrew volunteered on Friday to give up the use of his title as Duke of York, as well as several other titles. This means his only remaining title will be that of prince, which cannot be removed because it is a result of being the son of a queen. But only parliament can remove a royal title, so technically it retains the name.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said: “If Westminster parties are stubbornly slow to strip Prince Andrew of his titles, the SNP will do everything we can to force them to act.

“Prince Andrew’s titles can only be removed by an act of parliament. So this motion from the SNP is a way of pressuring the UK Labor government to bring forward this legislation immediately.”

“The only real question is what Keir Starmer’s government expects. The public knows this is the right thing to do and, more importantly, the victims at the center of the Epstein scandal know it is the right thing to do. It needs to be done without further excuses and without further delay.”

EDMs rarely have any impact other than generating publicity for a cause, but if a significant number of cross-party figures sign the SNP motion it could act as a method of putting pressure on the government.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 18 MPs, none from the Labor Party, had signed the motion, indicating it is unlikely to succeed.

Rachael Maskell, Labor MP for York Central, previously said she hoped to gain support for a bill that would give the king or a parliamentary committee the power to formally remove Andrew’s titles.

“Every time this issue comes up, it’s really traumatic for victims and survivors, so it’s really important that this issue is addressed once and for all,” Maskell said. “There are mechanisms that need to be put in place to remove a title.”

Maskell first proposed eliminating the titles in 2022. This is similar to similar legislation passed in 1917 to remove the titles of nobles and princes who fought against the British in the First World War.