Prince Andrew should face MPs over Royal Lodge lease, says Davey

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Prince Andrew should be called before MPs to give evidence about renting the Royal Lodge.

It comes after calls for greater transparency around royal finances and the independently run Crown Estate, which leases Andrew’s Windsor mansion.

Sir Ed called for a select committee inquiry into the Crown Estate for a “proper review”, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was important that all Crown properties were properly reviewed.

Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.

Interest in Prince Andrew, who has stepped down as royal, has increased. renounced his titles Last week, following mounting pressure over her links to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Sir Ed’s question came after a while. Document seen by BBC News He confirmed that the Royal Lodge arrangement meant that the prince paid only a nominal annual rent for the property and that this might not be required under his agreement with the Crown Estate.

The deal meant Prince Andrew would make large lump sum payments upfront, including renovations, rather than paying annual rent.

In effect, these payments, totaling around £8 million, meant that it bought itself out of future lease obligations over the 75-year lease.

Part of the deal was that if he left the lease early, he could get some of the money he paid back; this amount would decrease over time by up to 25 years – at the current rate, around £186,000 for each remaining year until 2028.

A Crown Estate is a property company owned by the monarch but operated independently, with profits going to the Treasury. The profit level is used as a criterion for calculating the financing given to investments by the government. The Royal Family in Sovereign Grant.

Baroness Margaret Hodge, who chaired the Public Accounts Committee between 2010 and 2015, said the Royal Lodge arrangement “looks like a rotten deal”.

“Royal Lodge is operated by the Crown Estate. [which] It has a duty to maximize the revenue it collects because that goes to taxpayers,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Wednesday.

He also called for greater transparency regarding royal finances in general.

“We don’t know,” he emphasized, “there is no transparency, so inevitably we are skeptical and ask questions.”

“What we have here is another specific issue that is an example of a much broader problem – that the royal finances are mired in secrecy and the lack of transparency around those finances leaves us asking all kinds of questions.”

The Royal Family has three main sources of funding besides private income.

The Sovereign Grant is funded by taxpayers, while the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall provide income for the King and Prince of Wales respectively.

The Royal Family’s annual financial statements include details of the Sovereign Grant, which funds official duties, the maintenance of the Occupied Royal Palaces and, most recently, the Buckingham Palace Reservation Scheme.

Separate reports are published on their websites for the two duchies defined as private property.

Baroness Hodge said: “There’s this muddy area […] “In my view, these are public because they were given by the state to the Royal Family to support themselves.”

The official website of the Duchy of Cornwall stated that the Prince of Wales paid income tax on this income; This is not an obligation, it is something he does voluntarily.

The King also voluntarily pays income tax to the Duchy of Lancaster.

The king last year ended financial support for Prince Andrew as he faced increasing public scrutiny over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The prince announced earlier this month that he would stop using the title Duke of York; but York MP Rachael Maskell, who suspended Labor in July, will table a motion in the House of Commons on Wednesday for new legislation that would allow the King to remove his titles.

This proposal would give the King the power to formally remove the prince from the duchy.

The Abolition of Titles Bill was introduced to parliament in 2022 and will require government support to become law.

Seen this week too Posthumous publication of Virginia Giuffre’s memoirsAndrew, who claimed Prince Andrew had sex with Ghislaine Maxwell at her home when she was 17, has always denied the allegations.

Separately, in the US, a senior member of the US House Oversight Committee Stephen Lynch told BBC’s Newsnight The committee would be “extremely interested in hearing about Prince Andrew’s involvement in all of this.”

The committee is considering documents from the Epstein case and Some documents have been made public in recent months.

Asked if he would issue that invitation, Mr. Lynch replied: “I’m sure we will.”

Annie Farmer, one of Epstein’s accusers, also told Newsnight that he was “not holding on”. [her] He said Prince Andrew would share more information with authorities.

But he added: “This is a moment. If she wants to do the right thing for Virginia and the rest of us, she can do something different and say: There’s information I want to share because I believe it could be helpful.”