Buckingham Palace still not clear of Prince Andrew’s scandal: Royal correspondent

King Charles and Buckingham Palace may have hoped that the removal of Prince Andrew’s titles could sway the tides of scandal in their favour — doesn’t seem likely for now.

For a number of reasons, the former Duke of York still remains entangled with the royal establishment and there is a chance that the Palace could be questioned over these connections.

According to BBC’s royal correspondent, Sean Coughlan, scrambling to have Andrew’s royal honours surrendered at the last minute “raises questions about whether the Palace should have acted sooner in responding to events involving Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein that happened many years ago.”

For the record, the King and his staff may have felt more at ease since the disgraced royal stepped away from his royal duties in 2019, which is why “Buckingham Palace has not been accountable for him in recent years.”

However, the “era under scrutiny” falls between the years when he was an active royal — from late 1990s, right up until his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019, after which Queen Elizabeth had ordered her younger son’s withdrawal.

“And with more evidence emerging from that era, such as damaging emails showing links between Andrew and Epstein, it raises questions about what royal officials and government departments might have known at the time and what information might still be held,” Coughlan further reported.

It is important to note that Buckingham Palace is currently supporting the Met Police’s examination of “documents that emerged at the weekend” suggesting that Prince Andrew had acquired Virginia Giuffre’s social security number and made police officials look into it prior to their settlement.