The shift has happened over the course of about three days. On Monday, roughly 68 hours after Prince Andrew “relinquished” his ducal title and his royal honors, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was shrugging off calls to punish Andrew any further or examine Andrew’s living arrangements at Royal Lodge. Most MPs – of all parties – took a similar hands-off approach. But then, it was like the fog lifted. Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, the political situation changed dramatically. There is now mainstream political pressure, again, across all parties, to change things. Not just finding a way to evict Andrew from Royal Lodge, but that seems to be the biggest item on the agenda. And now Keir Starmer is backing a parliamentary inquiry into Andrew and Royal Lodge. Not only that, MPs are talking about how the Windsors have always interfered politically to avoid scrutiny of their living arrangements.
The Royal household “misdirected” a parliamentary investigation 20 years ago into Prince Andrew’s rent-free Windsor estate, it has been claimed. A former MP who instigated the select committee inquiry in 2005 accused the Crown Estate and royal household of blocking efforts to understand the Prince’s finances. Ian Davidson, a former Labour MP, said the public accounts committee was “stonewalled” by authorities over a peppercorn deal that has allowed Prince Andrew to live rent-free at the Royal Lodge in Windsor.
On Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer backed demands for a fresh inquiry into the arrangements that allow the Prince to stay at Royal Lodge. Current members of the public accounts committee (PAC) said they wanted a new investigation into the Prince’s finances, raising the prospect of the King’s brother being forced to give evidence to Parliament. The Prime Minister said he would support “proper scrutiny” of the arrangement when asked if he would like to see the Prince hauled before MPs.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, asked Sir Keir if he would “support a select committee inquiry so all those involved should be called for evidence, including the current occupant”.
Sir Keir replied: “It’s important in relation to all properties, Crown properties, that there is proper scrutiny so I certainly support that.”
Mr Davidson, then a member of PAC, had raised questions over the deal in 2005, triggering an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO). That inquiry concluded that the Lodge could have achieved a minimum rent of £260,000 a year – equivalent to almost half a million pounds in today’s money – but that on security grounds only a member of the Royal family could live there. But Mr Davidson said: “We found it very difficult to get any straight answers at all about the financial arrangements surrounding Prince Andrew’s accommodation. We kept being misdirected and were simply flat refused details. It wasn’t clear at that time that the Prince was in receipt of such a substantial public subsidy for his accommodation.”
Mr Davidson said that if more details were known: “We would have pressed further. But in the face of stonewalling by the authorities – and by that I mean the royal household, the Crown Estate and the government – we couldn’t make any progress.”
A Palace source said that all the details of the deal were known to the NAO at the time of the report.
A stonewalling campaign in 2005 would have been from Buckingham Palace, and it was happening just three years after Andrew took up residence at Royal Lodge. There should be an investigation into that as well, the palace’s interference with a parliamentary inquiry. But yeah, Starmer has changed his tune. So what shifted over the course of three business days? Allegedly, Prince William has been raging behind the scenes, which has apparently given politicians some kind of permission structure to investigate? Keep in mind, no one has seen Huevo since last week. He’s on vacation right now.
“William is on it, William is on it.”
A Whitehall source tells @nicholaswatt that the Prince of Wales is attempting to grip the Prince Andrew situation amid cabinet unease at a slow response by the Palace. #Newsnight pic.twitter.com/gLRiNzXRAJ
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) October 22, 2025
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Prince Andrew – The Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson – The Duchess of York depart an Easter Service at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, London, England, UK on Sunday 20 April, 2025.,Image: 990294460, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- Prince Andrew – Duke of York arrives for an Easter Service at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, London, England, UK on Sunday 20 April, 2025.,Image: 990307773, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- London, UK, 16th Sep 2025. The Duchess of York, Prince Andrew,. HRH King Charles III, The Prince and Princess of Wales Prince William and Princess Catherine, Anne the Princess Royal, Prince Andrew The Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Michael of Kent and other senior members of the Royal Family all pay their last respects as the coffin is carried to the hearse. They then depart from Westminster Cathedral after the a requiem mass, a Catholic funeral service held for the Duchess of Kent, who passed away on 4 Sep.,Image: 1037893250, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Imageplotter/Avalon
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- King Charles III speaks with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (left) as he departs a reception for Western Balkans leaders at St James’s Palace, central London, on the eve of the Western Balkans Leaders’ Summit. Picture date: Tuesday October 21, 2025.,Image: 1047236178, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- King Charles III speaks with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (left) as he departs a reception for Western Balkans leaders at St James’s Palace, central London, on the eve of the Western Balkans Leaders’ Summit. Picture date: Tuesday October 21, 2025.,Image: 1047236255, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- 21/10/2025. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Keir Starmer joins King Charles III at a Western Balkans reception at St James’s Palace.,Image: 1047325625, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: This image is for Editorial use purposes only. The Image can not be used for advertising or commercial use. The Image can not be altered in any form. All images are Crown copyright and re-usable under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ Pictures marked as the copyright of a third party may only be re-used with permission from the rights holder., Model Release: no, Credit line: Lauren Hurley/Avalon
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- British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer departs for PMQs at Downing Street in London, England, UK on Wednesday 22 October, 2025.,Image: 1047344009, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives for a meeting of leaders of six Western Balkan nations with British and European officials at a Western Balkans Summit in London, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool),Image: 1047417700, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WPA POOL PHOTO, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Kirsty Wigglesworth/Avalon
Peg may fake rage about his pedo uncle for PR purposes but I think it has more to do with the book coming out and exposing more of the pedo. Now they want to investigate everything. Now he is too much of an embarrassment. Took them long enough to finally do something.
I highly doubt this change had anything to do with Peggy.. let’s see if they actually do anything this seems like an appeasement to calm the public outrage that will be ignored until the next public outrage happens.
Yeah, arguing “The BRF interfered with a parliamentary investigation 20 years ago – and now that one of the BRF is also mad, parliament is finally feels empowered to investigate this” is…NOT a good look for any of them.
Clearly not the BRF – still telling parliament what to do.
And definitely not Parliament, if they are STILL too chicken scared of the BRF to do anything until they have the BRF’s (in this case, Will’s) permission.
So I certainly hope they are just ironically throwing his name out there as an excuse!
(I’m also worried that if he really is the reason why this is gaining momentum, then the minute they feel that “Will has handled it” all actual investigations will be off.)
Now do all the other royal houses!
The focus on Andrew’s house is irritating and misdirected. Starmer and the other MPs should calling for a police investigation and should be talking to the US Embassy about having Andrew investigated by the FBI.
THIS! I’m finding all the talks about his house and titles as useful distractions from the fact that the RF, the police and the govt. have been protecting Andrew for years. From what I can tell, Andrew hasn’t broken his lease, but if the govt. wants to start investigating all of the royal leases, then by all means go ahead. If Andrew loses his peppercorn lease deal then its just going to be another royal, ahem William, taking over that same peppercorn lease. No one should be getting that kind of a lease deal and certainly not royals who have already been supported by SG and Duchy money their whole lives. The monarch just doesn’t want to pay his own money for his family to have houses so the monarch gets these ridiculous leases for family members, saving the monarch money. Investigate all the dang leases and investigate Andrew for real.
🎯
Preach, Amy Bee.
Yay. I also appreciate that Starmer refers to “all crown properties.”
Apparently there’s a criminality and morals clause in Andrew’s lease. Meaning, he could be evicted for moral turpitude. Wonder why this hasn’t been invoked before??? A commentor on the Off With Their Headlines Insta page says you can’t just allege moral turpitude, though, you need an investigation to prove it. Surely Charles and Andrew could have come to some agreement about that, though. Or Charles or William (if William were actually doing anything more than having his comms people broadcast that he’s “on it”) could have done their own “formal” investigation.
I don’t know British law, but can they not investigate him raping Virginia because the age of consent in Britain is 16, and she was 17 at the time she met him? So that’s why Parliament’s focus is on the lease and use of Crown properties? Couldn’t Parliament also investigate where Andrew’s shady money is coming from?
It’s not just about Virginia’s age, but also about human trafficking and violent sexual exploitation by other men to whom she was sold for this purpose.
I dont think any royals want to start down the road of moral turpitude.
And yes, investigate all the Crown properties. there’s a vested interest here for the government – the government gets a large cut of Crown Estate profits (I think all of them after the SG is paid) so why not make sure that the CE is being run properly – that properties aren’t sitting vacant or money isnt being spent just bc W&K want a bigger house, etc. Maximize the income for the government.
Part of the answer here is that someone who is shady in one part of their life is usually shady in them all. Back when Me Too was new, someone wrote about how when there were sexual harassment allegations, they would do an audit of the harassers expense reports and inevitably find wrongdoing. They got Al Capone on tax evasion.
That said, the funding model for the RF is falling apart. If you want a monarchy, you have to pay for it, including the whole family. Charles being cheap and downsizing has been a disaster. They want the tradition of living in these huge houses with armies of servants, but don’t like the actual houses, so they get new ones, but the old ones are maintained because of “heritage.” It’s a mess and it won’t stand up to scrutiny.
I have questions How far and wide will this go? before we know it they will be investigating Harry & Meghan even though they are private citizens in order that no embarassment comes back to the the Crown
Harry and Meghan have no Crown properties and receive no money from the BRF. So not relevant to this.
It isn’t H&M’s dealings BRF has been hiding all these years. Every step H&M took got reported by tabloids with added lies. There is nothing hidden about what H&M did in UK, what they spent, what they bought. If there was anything out of ordinary, it would be leaked to DM years ago. H&M paid back the renovation money that is spent and BRF took their home anyway. They don’t own or lease anything there.
I am curious to see, given how William is stomping all over his father’s reign, how George will act when he’s a grown man and Prince of Wales, will it be another round of “like father, like son”? Will George stomp all over William’s reign with constant briefings on how he’ll be a better king than his father? I really hope that one of the kids breaks free from this festering, crumbling institution and family!
“…all crown properties?” Will they ask why the market-rent paying tenants of Frogmore Cottage have been evicted and a freshly renovated house is sitting empty for years now?
Right? Now that would be a good question. Meanwhile, who all has peppercorn leases and basically giving next to n nothing to the crown estates. I’d sure like to see the FL lease in fine print. Becky English saying it is understood they are paying market rate rent does not count. The public should see the fine print.
Well this looks like Parliament might look into Andrew’s finances and also the management of all Crown Estate finances. Not just the lease. I’m sure Charles would hate that.
Forest Lodge and Adelaide are Crown Estate properties, no? William and Charles must hate all this.
A girl can dream. Even better is this opens the door to investigations into other royal grifting. Like cash for honors or vacations on mega yachts owned by the UAE foreign minister. And whoever owned Camilla’s yacht.
First off – good this deserves scrutiny and change. Second – if William is behind this momentum – he will rue where this pathway eventually leads. No one in the royal family is standing on solid ground when it comes to taxpayer support and the assets that they allegedly “own”. Let’s consider Prince Charles’ own corruption for a moment. The genie won’t go back in the bottle.
Christmas family gathering is about to be hilarious. Andrew will be invited to everything and it will make even more of a mess of this situation. Can’t wait.