If you ever worry that you might be a bad judge of character, fear not – it could be worse. You could, after all, be Prince Andrew. For while you may have made some dubious decisions or maintained some questionable associations over the years, how many of us can say we’ve had the misfortune of ending up being friends with both a paedophile and an alleged Chinese spy?
That, we now know, is the fate of the man who, despite being steeped in scandal, is still eighth in line to the British throne. Thank heavens that someone with such seemingly shocking judgement will almost certainly never ascend to it.
For most of his life, though, Andrew has had real influence. As a senior royal who carried out public duties for decades (until 2019, when serious sexual allegations against him – allegations that he strongly denied – put a stop to that) he has been at the heart of public life. Through the quirk of fate that saw him born into this particular family, he was granted access to powerful and wealthy people across the globe – a world in which he seems to have delighted in participating. He served as Britain’s “special representative” for trade and investment for a decade.
Andrew has been a prominent member of Britain’s ruling elite and, as a working member of the royal family until recently, would have received many millions of pounds of public money.
Despite the state having funded this lifestyle, we still know next to nothing about Andrew’s activities. His associations, his financial arrangements, his business interests all remain hidden behind a shroud of secrecy. After yet another scandal, this needs to end.
A man who has received many millions in public funding, who has held public roles, cannot continue to pretend that, when it comes to money, he is just like any other ordinary citizen. Nor can the Palace keep up its preposterous pretence that the financial dealings of a senior royal, even one no longer carrying out public duties, are simply a matter for him and HMRC.
Transparency is needed, urgently. What – or, more pertinently, who – has been funding Andrew’s lifestyle since his brother cut off his allowance? What role, if any, did a man with alleged links to the Chinese state who reportedly served as Andrew’s business adviser have in facilitating this? Who is the man who could, in theory at least, still end up as our head of state, financially dependent on? About all this and much, much more, the British public deserves to know.
Yet the lack of transparency does not stop with Andrew. For years, the royals have tried to dodge even the most elementary questions about their finances, wealth and cost to the taxpayer – and mostly they have succeeded.
They have repeatedly rejected requests from journalists, biographers and historians about countless elements of their financial arrangements, even basic details like how much taxpayer money is spent on their security. They have been granted exemptions from new laws, like the Freedom of Information Act, designed to improve the accountability of public bodies. In all of this, they have been aided by successive governments agreeing to help hold a veil of secrecy in front of the royals’ affairs.
That’s why, for example, it took years of digging and a recent Sunday Times and Dispatches investigation to reveal that the King and his heir, through their Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall private estates, are raking in millions in taxpayers’ money by charging various government departments and public bodies to use their land for things like parking ambulances, conducting military training or maintaining prisons.
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Read MoreEnough is enough. The royals – all of them – should be given a choice. They can agree to be treated like other private citizens, receiving no public funding and therefore having no obligation to be transparent about their dealings. Or they can continue to insist that, as public servants, they should be the recipients of state grants and, if that is the case, accept all the transparency and accountability requirements that other public servants, like politicians, are forced to abide by. The fact that they are not elected should not negate the expectation that, if you receive public money, certain standards and obligations should follow – in fact, that the royals are not subject to accountability via the ballot box makes that even more important.
For too long the royals have wanted to have it both ways, happily receiving eye-watering sums from the British state to fund their lavish lifestyles, while refusing to answer questions about their business dealings and associations. They insist they are public servants when it comes to the state paying for their palaces and private jets, but claim to be private citizens when tricky questions emerge about their wealth.
This has gone on long enough. It is time for the institutions that govern this country to stop treating the public like fools and start allowing the light of scrutiny to be shone on their murky arrangements. Andrew should voluntarily disclose how he is continuing to pay rent on a royal mansion despite appearing to have no salary. The Palace should also publish what it knows about his finances.
At the same time, government departments should dismantle the wall of secrecy they have erected around the royals. Until now, for example, journalists trying to uncover details of Andrew’s former role as the UK’s special envoy for trade were met with bluster and blockage. Multiple government departments have insisted they have no knowledge of any of the questions being asked. Either that is untrue, or there has been an appalling failure to keep records about the government-supported work of a senior royal, and heads should roll.
It has long been clear that we cannot rely on the royals to opt for transparency when given the choice, so the choice should be taken away. New laws should be passed to mandate that any royal who has benefitted from state funding should have to declare donations in the same way as MPs and ministers do. Information on the people they meet should also be made public, just as government ministers’ are. And the loopholes that allow the monarchy to avoid existing transparency laws should be closed.
The culture of secrecy and subterfuge that has long surrounded the monarchy’s financial affairs is completely at odds with the behaviour that citizens of a liberal European democracy should have the right to expect from their heads of state.
Prince Andrew exemplifies this arrogant insistence that the rules that apply to others should not apply to them, but he is not alone. When it comes to transparency and accountability, it is long past time that the royals let the light in.
Ben Kentish presents his LBC show from Monday to Friday at 10pm, and is former Westminster editor
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