Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor faces a new investigation after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office on Thursday (February 19). It is understood an influential committee of MPs could launch an inquiry into his role as UK trade envoy as soon as next week.
Andrew served as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment from 2001 to 2011. However, he resigned following his alleged associations with controversial figures such as Jeffrey Epstein. It has now emerged that a committee could meet next Tuesday (February 24) to discuss an investigation into the behaviour of the former royal.
As reported by The Guardian, Andrew reportedly pestered ministers about getting a bigger role in government as her served as trade envoy. A senior figure said he asked ministers for a more significant job on a number of occasions.
They said: “He approached ministers personally, saying ‘Can you find a bigger role for me?’ Trade envoys are not considered a very important part of the state, they are mainly tokenistic. Andrew seemed to feel he had no real role in life, but had something to offer in terms of contacts around the world, particularly royalty.”
Meanwhile, others who worked closely with Andrew at the time claimed he was widely regarded as a liability. This related to both his personality and the way he carried out the job.
A second senior figure said: “The classic thing would be for him to turn up – and being a royal would get access in some countries – do a lunch meeting but then disappear for six hours and come back with two new Rolexes.
“What I saw was a rather unpleasant, arrogant, entitled person who was on the hustle and couldn’t tell the difference between the public interest and his private interests.
“It created quite a sense of general distaste. It was always never completely clear who would pay for his trips – the Foreign Office, business department or the palace. And it wasn’t cheap. He went to Davos one year and insisted on the most expensive chalet.”
The cross-party business and trade committee are expected to investigate whether more could have been done to challenge Andrew’s alleged behaviour. They will also look into how his actions could have also been illegal.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
