{"id":2108526,"date":"2025-10-22T16:14:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2108526"},"modified":"2025-10-22T16:14:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:14:51","slug":"mps-pushing-hard-to-launch-inquiry-into-prince-andrews-royal-lodge-residence-prince-andrew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/mps-pushing-hard-to-launch-inquiry-into-prince-andrews-royal-lodge-residence-prince-andrew\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs \u2018pushing hard\u2019 to launch inquiry into Prince Andrew\u2019s Royal Lodge residence | Prince Andrew"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MPs on a powerful parliamentary select committee are \u201cpushing hard\u201d to launch an inquiry into Prince Andrew\u2019s residence at Royal Lodge, the Guardian understands.<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer has indicated he is open to MPs questioning Andrew in person about his home in Windsor Great Park, where he has lived for more than 20 years without paying rent.<\/p>\n

MPs on the public accounts committee, which scrutinises public spending, are understood to be gathering support to launch their inquiry into the financial arrangements.<\/p>\n

The select committee is chaired by the veteran Conservative MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown. Any decision to launch an inquiry would need to be agreed by the whole committee.<\/p>\n

The former chair of the committee, Margaret Hodge, has publicly criticised the living arrangements of Andrew, who has been stripped of his dukedom by the palace after new revelations about his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffery Epstein.<\/p>\n

The government is facing mounting pressure over the prince\u2019s residence in the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor, where it was revealed that he has not paid rent for more than two decades.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Andrew has leased the Royal Lodge from the UK state\u2019s property empire, the crown estate, since 2003, making a one-off payment of \u00a31m to lease the property for 75 years though paying for \u00a37.5m in refurbishments. He pays \u201cone peppercorn\u201d a year in rent.<\/p>\n

If he were forced to leave the mansion, the crown estate would have to pay him compensation.<\/p>\n

The pressure comes amid fresh allegations made about the prince in the posthumous memoir by the Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre, who said she had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions. She also said the prince\u2019s team tried to \u201chire internet trolls\u201d<\/a> to \u201chassle\u201d her online. Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves<\/a>, said on Tuesday she believed people should \u201cpay their way\u201d when asked whether Andrew should be permitted to remain at Royal Lodge.<\/p>\n

Sources close to the select committee said there was growing will for a proper examination of his living arrangements and the continued luxury he enjoys despite his conduct.<\/p>\n

At prime minister\u2019s questions on Wednesday, Starmer appeared to agree with the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, when he suggested MPs cross-examine Andrew about Royal Lodge.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the revelations about Royal Lodge, does the rime minister agree that this house needs to properly scrutinise the crown estate to ensure taxpayers\u2019 interests are protected? The chancellor has said these arrangements are wrong, so will the prime minister support a select committee inquiry to take evidence from everyone involved \u2013 including the current occupant?\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer replied: \u201cWell, it\u2019s important in relation to all properties, crown properties, that there is proper scrutiny, and I certainly support that.\u201d<\/p>\n

His spokesperson did not deny that Starmer was endorsing the idea of a select committee examining Royal Lodge. \u201cIt\u2019s important that there\u2019s proper scrutiny when the scrutiny is needed,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Davey said that any cross-examination would have public backing. \u201cThe public are quite understandably demanding answers, so it\u2019s right that parliament gets to the bottom of arrangements regarding the Royal Lodge.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrince Andrew should come before a parliamentary committee to give his evidence and show contrition. Transparency will be central to rebuilding trust in our institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theguardian.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MPs on a powerful parliamentary select committee are \u201cpushing hard\u201d to launch an inquiry into Prince Andrew\u2019s residence at Royal Lodge, the Guardian understands. Keir Starmer has indicated he is open to MPs questioning Andrew in person about his home in Windsor Great Park, where he has lived for more than 20 years without paying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2108527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2108526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MPs-\u2018pushing-hard-to-launch-inquiry-into-Prince-Andrews-Royal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2108526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2108528,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108526\/revisions\/2108528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2108527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2108526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2108526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2108526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}