Justice versus Conscience

21 okt 2025 #emilymaitlis #royals #LBC

Calls are mounting for Prince Andrew to hand over the keys to his grace-and-favour Windsor mansion after it emerged he had allegedly not paid rent on the Royal Lodge since 2003.

Pressure continues to mount on the royal after his close ties to ex-billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein continued to surface, with calls from the public and MPs alike to step back from his taxpayer-funded life.

Weighing in on the debate, Conservative MP and Shadow Home Secretary Robert Jenrick insisted that Prince Andrew has embarrassed the royal family and should move out of the lodge.

Labelling the royal “embarrassing”, he said that it was “about time” the royal “took himself off to live in private”, adding that he believed “the public are sick of him”.

It comes just days after Andrew voluntarily gave up his titles amid mounting public pressure over his links to the financier.

Last night it emerged that the former Duke of York has paid a peppercorn rent for his grace-and-favour mansion since taking up residency at the Windsor pad in 2003.

The rental agreement demands “one peppercorn paid a year if demanded” for rent, with estimates suggesting the market rate on the property could be in the region of £260,000 a year.

According to The Times, a copy of the leasehold agreement for the sprawling 30-room estate shows that after paying for the lease after the passing of the Queen Mother in 2003, he has not paid any more for the Lodge.

In line with Jenrick’s comments, senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier alluded to the fact that parliamentary committees could probe the Crown Estate’s handling of such living arrangements.

It comes as Tina Brown, a friend of the late Princess Diana and former editor-in-chief of Tatler and Vanity Fair, claimed that Prince William and Kate “can’t abide” Andrew.

She suggested that the royals want him to “disappear”.

Writing on her Substack, Ms Brown labelled Andrew the “Duke of Dross”.

She added that William and Kate must be wondering: “How do you disappear a 6-foot-tall, 190-pound, 65-year-old man in robust good health who has an iron-clad contract to live in the Queen Mother’s former mansion, a short neigh from Windsor Castle and just four miles from the new “forever” home of Prince William and Kate, who can’t abide him?”

In light of the scandal around his association with Jeffrey Epstein and the allegations of sexual abuse made against him by the late Virginia Giuffre, members of the Royal Family are reportedly keen to remove Andrew from the Lodge.

The document is also said to state that the Crown Estate, which manages royal properties and palaces for the taxpayer, must pay more than £500,000 to force Prince Andrew to leave the property.

The Prince is facing a swathe of new allegations in regards to Ms Giuffre, who died from suicide aged 41 earlier this year.

Andrew voluntarily gave up his titles last week, but he will continue to hold them officially until they are removed by an Act of Parliament.

MPs are now advocating for a change in the law to allow titled to be removed, with the SNP warning that new legislation must be brought forward without “any excuses and any further delay”.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “The public knows this is the right thing to do – and even more importantly, the victims at the heart of the Epstein scandal know that it’s the right thing to do.

“Those implicated in the Epstein scandal have been able to escape justice because they have hidden behind their power and privilege.”