King is ‘powerless to respond’ to Andrew scandal – but ‘must take action eventually’ | Royal | News
There have been calls for King Charles to take further action and make more statements about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor following his arrest last week, but the situation is complicated, a royal expert has claimed. The former prince was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office after being accused of sharing sensitive information with pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein while serving as Britain’s trade envoy.
Crown expert Phil Dampier said: “The fact that it’s the subject of a police investigation at the moment means they can’t really talk about it, because obviously it’s ongoing. I don’t think they can really comment while a police investigation is ongoing, and of course that could take months.”
To talk Hello! MagazineThe royal expert added that King Charles should “address the nation” once the situation “calms down”.
The expert said: “They need to listen to the public. If the King has the opportunity to get ahead of this by saying ‘What happened was terrible and we are deeply concerned about the victims’, that will draw a line under this situation, in the same way that the Queen decided to do a live public broadcast to quell the anger over Diana’s death. I think a reset is needed and it would be good if Charles could do that.”
On Monday, it was revealed that the Australian Prime Minister had written a letter to Sir Keir Starmer saying his Government would support “any proposal” to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the succession.
Phil added: “I think that’s probably going to happen within six months. It could happen pretty quickly, whether he’s charged, whether he goes to trial or not. The political will and public opinion is so strong that in some ways it could become a gesture. He’s clearly not going to return as a working royal and the monarchy can only exist with the support of the people.”
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The disgraced former prince can only be removed from the line of succession by an Act of Parliament requiring the agreement of the 14 Commonwealth countries of which Charles is head of state.
Andrew became the first member of the Royal Family to be arrested in modern times when he was arrested over allegations of misconduct in public office. The emails showed him sharing confidential information with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while working as a business representative.
Among the e-mails published in the latest file section of the US Department of Justice regarding Epstein, there are allegations that the former prince forwarded government reports to Epstein regarding his visits to Vietnam, Singapore and China in 2010.
Andrew did not respond to requests for comment about the specific allegations, which emerged after the files were released last month. He has previously denied any wrongdoing regarding Epstein.
