Pressure is mounting on Prince Andrew to give up his Windsor mansion and “take himself off to live in private” as a group of MPs urges the government to formally strip him of his dukedom.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the public is “sick” of the disgraced royal, after it emerged he had paid only a peppercorn rent on his 30-room mansion for more than 20 years.
Andrew announced he will give up use of his royal titles amid renewed focus on his links to Jeffrey Epstein. The prince vehemently denies the allegations that Virginia Giuffre, whose posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl was officially published on Tuesday, was forced to have sex with him three times after being trafficked by the billionaire financier.
“He’s embarrassed the royal family time and again,” Mr Jenrick said, adding that Andrew has behaved “disgracefully”.
“He should really now leave public life forever, stop having any subsidy from the taxpayer whatsoever and go and lead an entirely private life. The public are sick of Prince Andrew and the damage that he’s done to the reputation of our royal family and this country.”
Meanwhile, SNP MPs at Westminster have lodged an early day motion calling for the “government to take legislative steps to remove the dukedom granted to Prince Andrew”.
Andrew and his family have a 75-year lease of the 30-bedroom Royal Lodge in Windsor, allowing them to live in the property until 2078. The latest revelation will pile pressure on the scandal-mired royal to give up the Royal Lodge, which sits on an estate of 98 acres in Windsor Great Park and is leased from the crown estate.
Details of the leasehold agreement show that Andrew signed a 75-year lease in 2003. He paid £1m for the lease, and beyond that, rent was set at a “peppercorn” if demanded.
The agreement also contains a clause which states the crown estate would have to pay Andrew around £558,000 if he gave up the lease.
Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury committee, told BBC Radio 4 that “where money flows and particularly where taxpayers’ money is involved or taxpayers’ interests are involved, parliament has a responsibility to have a light shone upon that and we need to have answers”.
The Independent understands that the Treasury committee currently do not have any plans to launch a piece of work looking at Royal Lodge.
No 10 said on Tuesday that it is up to the public spending watchdog as to whether or not the lease is re-examined.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The National Audit Office reviewed the lease arrangements for Royal Lodge in 2005. And in its report, which was published at that time, it concluded that the crown estate does not have any special procedures when negotiating agreements with the royal family.
“An independent evaluation concluded that the transaction with Prince Andrew and Royal Lodge was appropriate.”
Another parliamentary group, the public accounts committee, told The Independent that the lease is a policy matter for the royal household, and said that it is the committee’s understanding that “these arrangements were accurately disclosed to the National Audit Office as part of its annual and most recent audit of crown estate accounts”.
The spending watchdog, the NAO, will be “looking at the crown estate’s annual report and accounts in the next financial year” as part of its regular work, a spokesperson for the committee said.
Under the terms of the Royal Lodge lease, Andrew must ensure the exterior of the mansion is repainted with two coats of paint every five years and the outside stone and cement work is cleaned and repointed.
He must also repaint the interior – also with two coats of paint – every seven years.
The prince is also required to “paper polish decorate” and treat the inside of the seven-bedroom home respectfully.
The Liberal Democrats have called for Andrew to “show some contrition by returning every penny of rent that he’s not paid while disgracing his office”.
Stating the bleedin’ obvious. pic.twitter.com/gXb4Fh3oDk
— Stephen Flynn MP (@StephenFlynnSNP) October 20, 2025
The party’s cabinet office spokesperson, Lisa Smart, said: “The longer this whole sorry saga goes on, the more his presence in public life is an insult and increasingly an embarrassment.”
Also in the wake of her memoir, Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, Sky and Amanda Roberts, have called on the police watchdog to review the decision by the Metropolitan Police not to continue its investigations into her allegations against Andrew.
They have urged the force to reopen a probe into Giuffre’s claim that she was forced to have sex with the royal when she was aged 17, adding that if the police would not take action they feel the Independent Office for Police Conduct should review the decision.
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