The British government on former Prince Andrew: "Groller, arrogant and spoiled"

LondonIn an unprecedented debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the brother of the King of England, former Prince Andrew, was described as "rude, arrogant, and spoiled" by Labour MP and Secretary of State for Business Chris Bryant. The harsh words in the Westminster Parliament reflect a break with a nearly sacred convention in British politics, according to which any criticism of immediate members of the royal family has always been avoided.

But Andrew Mountbatten Windsor It's already a fallen tree and everyone wants to make firewood from it.A way of trying to establish a firewall between the institution of the monarchy and the black sheep of the family. The Secretary of State also asserted that the former Duke of York "did not distinguish between public and private interests." During the same debate, initiated by the Liberal Democrats to request the government to declassify the files relating to the appointment of Charles III's younger brother as the UK's trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, Keir Starmer's government has been asked to publish them. Bryant defended this, arguing that files that could compromise the ongoing police investigation would not be released. Downing Street cited a "balancing act" between transparency and respect for police procedure, but the few MPs present in the chamber at the time of the vote unanimously approved the motion for the partial declassification of the documents. However, there is still no firm date for the release of the archives, partly due to the ongoing investigation and partly due to the number of documents requested, some of which are over 25 years old and not in digital format.

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor He is under investigation for alleged misconduct in the performance of his public duties.He was arrested last Thursday and spent almost twelve hours in police custody, following evidence that emerged in the files on the Epstein case, published by the United States Department of Justice at the end of January. According to these testsAndrew disclosed confidential government information to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, information he had access to by virtue of his position at the time.

The royal family in the eye of the storm

The attacks against Mountbatten-Windsor have come from all sides. During his speech, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, demanded that Peter Mandelson—a two-time Labour minister, former European Commissioner, and former British ambassador to the United States—be clarified as to his role in Andrew's appointment and that the vetting mechanisms applied at the time be reviewed. Mandelson also He was arrested for the same reasons on Monday afternoon —and released on bail early Tuesday morning—, as the same evidence mentioned above shows that he also shared critical British government information with Epstein when he was a minister in Gordon Brown's cabinet between 2009 and 2010. Both the former prince and the former minister deny any wrongdoing.

Given the exceptional nature of the debate, with the royal family at the center of the storm, the Speaker of the House, thespeaker Lindsay Hoyle had urged MPs to show "restraint" in their language, warning of the risk of jeopardizing a potential legal case. These words also served as a veiled warning against going further in criticizing the institution of the monarchy, which, after all, covered up Andrew's allegedly criminal activities that are now under investigation. However, the debate marks a turning point in parliamentary scrutiny of figures linked to Epstein and in the standards demanded in British public life, including the Crown.