Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for Prince Andrew to appear before Members of Parliament to provide testimony regarding the lease of Royal Lodge.
This follows increased scrutiny regarding royal finances and the independently managed Crown Estate, which granted Andrew the lease for his Windsor mansion.
During Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons, Sir Ed urged a select committee inquiry to “properly scrutinise” the Crown Estate. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer responded by emphasizing the importance of ensuring appropriate oversight of all Crown properties.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
While no regulations prohibit a House of Commons committee from inviting Prince Andrew to present evidence, an appearance by a member of the Royal Family in such a setting would be unprecedented. It remains uncertain whether the committee possesses the authority to compel his attendance.
In a formal request to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which oversees public spending, Sir Ed asserted that the proposed inquiry should gather testimony from “everyone involved” in Andrew’s housing arrangement.
“The public are understandably questioning whether this arrangement by the Crown Estate is appropriate,” he stated.
However, a PAC spokesperson indicated that an immediate inquiry is unlikely, citing a programme “currently full up until the new year.”
The spokesperson added that the National Audit Office would review the Crown Estate’s annual report in the next financial year, “as part of its normal programme of work.”
Heightened scrutiny has been directed towards Prince Andrew – who previously stepped back from royal duties – after he relinquished his titles last week, prompted by growing concerns regarding his association with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Sir Ed’s inquiry followed the revelation of a document seen by BBC News, confirming that the agreement for the Royal Lodge entailed Prince Andrew paying only a nominal annual rent, which might not even be required under his arrangement with the Crown Estate.
Instead of annual rent payments, Prince Andrew made substantial upfront lump-sum payments, including for renovations.
Effectively, these payments, totaling approximately £8 million, allowed him to bypass future rent obligations for the duration of the 75-year lease.
The deal also stipulated that if he vacated the property early, he could reclaim a portion of the upfront payments, with the amount decreasing over time until the 25-year mark – currently, around £186,000 for each remaining year until 2028.
Former Crown Estate commissioner Lord Curry told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley that the estate would be “honour bound to honour that lease” and that any inquiry would be a “waste of time and money”.
“There’s nothing they can do about the lease without reneging on its terms, and that would be inappropriate,” he said.
The Crown Estate, a property business owned by the monarch but managed independently, contributes its profits to the Treasury. The level of profit serves as a benchmark for calculating the government’s funding allocation to the Royal Family through the Sovereign Grant.
Baroness Margaret Hodge, who led the Public Accounts Committee from 2010 to 2015, characterized the Royal Lodge arrangement as “a rotten deal.”
“The Royal Lodge is run by the Crown Estate [which] is under a duty to maximise the income it collects because that goes to the taxpayer,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday.
She also advocated for greater transparency in royal finances generally.
“We don’t know,” she underlined, “there’s no transparency – so inevitably we’re sceptical and we ask questions”.
“All we’ve got here is another specific issue which is an example of a much much wider problem which is that the royal finances are mired in secrecy and that lack of transparency associated with those finances ends up with us asking all sorts of questions.”
In addition to private income, the Royal Family receives funding from three primary sources.
The Sovereign Grant is funded by the taxpayer while the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall provide income for the King and the Prince of Wales respectively.
Annual financial statements from the Royal Family include details on the Sovereign Grant – which funds official duties, the maintenance of the Occupied Royal Palaces and more recently has funded the Buckingham Palace Reservicing Programme.
Separate reports are published for the two duchies which are described on their respective websites as private estates.
Baroness Hodge said: “There is this muddy territory […] in my view, they are public because they were given by the State to the Royal Family for the purpose of sustaining themselves.”
The Duchy of Cornwall’s official site said the Prince of Wales pays income tax on this income – which is not a requirement, but something he does voluntarily.
The King also voluntarily pays income tax on the Duchy of Lancaster.
The King ended financial support for Prince Andrew last year as he faced increasing public scrutiny over his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The prince announced he would stop using his Duke of York title earlier this month – however York MP Rachael Maskell, who had the Labour whip suspended in July, is introducing a proposal to the House of Commons on Wednesday for a new law which would enable the King to remove titles.
This proposal would give the King the power to formally strip the prince of the dukedom.
The Removal of Titles Bill was already introduced in parliament in 2022 and would require the support of government to become law.
This week has also seen the publication of the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that Prince Andrew had sex with her at Ghislaine Maxwell’s house when she was 17. Andrew has always denied the allegations.
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