We deserve truth about Prince Andrew’s decade of globe-trotting

The UK government is still withholding files that would reveal who he met — and what he did — as special representative for trade and investment

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Prince Andrew has fallen from grace through his associations with Jeffrey Epstein but the real story is a financial — not sexual — one, which centres around his time as special representative for trade and investment between 2001 and 2011.

He was appointed by Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson against the advice of the future King Charles, then Prince of Wales, who believed his younger brother would simply use the opportunity to pursue his interests in golf and women.

The prince at Royal Troon, South Ayrshire, in 1997
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Andrew had left the navy in 2001 as it could find no more jobs to occupy him. His new role was unpaid, but he received a stipend of £249,000 a year from his mother, as well as his naval pension, and was entitled to claim expenses.

Senior Foreign Office sources said Andrew would be kept on a tight leash to ensure he had no opportunity to let his personal interests interfere with his official duties. “There is no way that we will let British trade policy be determined by the location of the world’s best golf courses,” one said.

An assistant private secretary with trade experience was seconded from the Foreign Office to support Andrew. Nevertheless, Charles’s concerns proved correct.

There was a diplomatic incident in Oman, confirmed to me by several senior diplomats, when he tried to cadge some money off the sultan.

Andrew at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman’s capital, in 2001
ANDREW PARSONS/PA

He used meetings with Gulf royals to hawk the sale of his own house, Sunninghill Park in Berkshire. It was eventually sold to Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of the then president of Kazakhstan, a business associate, for £3 million more than the asking price, in spite of being on the market for five years with no other buyer interested.

Sarah Ferguson arrives at Sunninghill Park in 1993 with her daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice. It was sold by Andrew for £15 million in 2007
ALAMY

Andrew and Buckingham Palace vehemently denied any impropriety, with the prince’s spokesman calling the sale a “straight commercial transaction”.

Representatives for Kulibayev have always stated there was another potential buyer and that it was a purely commercial and legitimate transaction.

In Brunei, Andrew kept both the ambassador and the sultan’s sister, Princess Masna, who had been deputed to look after him, waiting an hour without offering an explanation or apology.

His demands were legendary: water at room temperature, Weetabix for breakfast, instructions not to ask questions about the royal family or talk to him about golf or a preference for blondes.

Many of those I spoke to felt the whole exercise of having him as special representative was a waste of effort and money, and often counterproductive. They believed everyone was simply going through the motions to give Andrew something to do.

The prince preferred to stay at expensive hotels rather than the ambassador’s residence. One diplomat expressed concerns about who he was seeing and that he had a freelance business career with a parallel agenda, fixing meetings with people who were not part of his mission.

Andrew also had a preference for private jets over commercial flights and helicopters rather than trains or cars — all at the expense of the taxpayer.

The prince’s activities have been heavily criticised but they were enabled by many others — his own staff and politicians at the Foreign Office and Department of Trade and Industry — few of whom are prepared to even now talk about their involvement. Those diplomats who did raise concerns found their next posting was to Nigeria.

MPs — many of whom for years have ignored my approaches for help — have now called for an investigation into the lease of Royal Lodge. They may be better off campaigning for the release of the files surrounding Andrew’s time as special representative, many of which by law should be in the National Archives.

Andrew has not paid rent at Royal Lodge in Windsor for two decades
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For four years I have put in countless but ultimately unsuccessful requests for the files which would reveal who accompanied him on his trips, who he saw, and what was done. In the few documents released, names have been redacted under data protection rules even though they are publicly available from the Court Circular. I also think there are grounds for an investigation into the prince’s time as special representative, with diplomats and politicians forced to give testimony under oath.

Andrew Lownie is the author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York