MPs back move to release files on Andrew’s appointment as trade envoy

MPs have backed releasing documents on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as a UK trade envoy.

Trade Minister Sir Chris Bryant described Andrew as “rude, arrogant and entitled”, as the government supported a Lib Dem motion forcing ministers to release files on his appointment in 2001.

Sir Chris said the government would comply with the motion “as fast as we possibly can”, although he said the live police investigation into Andrew could cause delays.

Andrew was released under investigation last week after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He has previously denied any wrongdoing over his links to Jeffrey Epstein but has not responded to this specific allegation.

Police searches at Andrew’s former Royal Lodge residence in Windsor, Berkshire, finished on Tuesday.

Police had previously said they were considering investigating him over allegations relating to his association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and were reviewing allegations he shared confidential material.

Andrew held the role of “special representative for international trade and investment” between 2001 and 2011, giving him privileged access to senior government and business contacts around the world.

Emails released in the US from the latest tranche of files related to Epstein include claims that he forwarded government reports from visits to Vietnam, Singapore and China to Epstein in 2010.

Elsewhere in the documents, Andrew is also alleged to have forwarded information on investment opportunities in gold and uranium in Afghanistan to Epstein.

Andrew has not responded to the BBC’s requests for comment on specific allegations that have emerged after the US release of files in January related to the late financier.

He has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and has denied any personal gain from his role as trade envoy.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Sir Chris said colleagues and civil servants had told him about their interactions with Andrew.

He told MPs: “They all betray the same pattern – a man on a constant self-aggrandising and self-enriching hustle, a rude, arrogant and entitled man who could not distinguish between the public interest, which he said he served, and his own private interest.”

The Lib Dems used scheduled debating time allocated to the party on Tuesday to force the government to agree to a so-called humble address that compels ministers to release information on Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment.

This type of motion is generally seen as binding and was successfully used by the Conservatives earlier this month to force the government into releasing material related to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in late 2024.

The motion was approved unopposed without the need for a formal vote.

Sir Chris, confirming the government’s support, told the House of Commons: “Frankly, it is the least we owe the victims of the horrific abuse that was perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein and others, the abuse that was enabled, aided and abetted by a very extensive group of arrogant, entitled and often very wealthy individuals in this country and elsewhere.

“It’s not just the people who participated in the abuse, it’s the many, many more who turned a blind eye out of greed, familiarity or deference.

“To my mind they too were complicit, just as complicit and I welcome the reckoning that is coming to them now.”

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Watch: Sir Ed Davey pressed on defending Andrew as trade envoy in 2011

Sir Chris went on to explain the government would comply with the terms of the humble address “in full” before seeking to manage expectations on the speed of the process.

After Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh warned it could be “years before we see any of these papers”, Sir Chris said: “I want to make sure that we move as fast as we possibly can, but I also want to make sure that justice does happen, and I don’t want to do anything that would undermine the police investigations.

“I hope that they will be able to move as swiftly as possible and we will certainly co-operate with them as swiftly as possible.

“It’s worth bearing in mind that the documents that might be envisaged in this are mostly 25-years-old. Some of them are a bit earlier. They may be substantial in number and many of them will be in hard copy.”

For the Conservatives, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart advised ministers about “how bad it will look” if the government “does not provide information as swiftly as possible”.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed, speaking in the Commons, described the Epstein scandal as “truly global” but also “a deeply British scandal reaching right to the top of the British establishment”.

In 2011, when he was a business minister, Sir Ed said Andrew was doing an “excellent job” as trade envoy and dismissed concerns around him at the time as “innuendo”.

Asked about his defence of Andrew during a previous parliamentary debate, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “First of all can I apologise to all those victims of Epstein who may have read those words and been upset by them. I really regret them.”

Sir Ed said he “wasn’t really over the brief” and added “no MP mentioned Epstein in that debate and I think that tells a tale about how Parliament and MPs don’t hold the Royal Family, didn’t hold [the former] Prince Andrew in that really privileged position, properly to account”.

Andrew was appointed to the unpaid trade role under Tony Blair’s Labour government.

He was officially appointed by the then Queen after consultation with the Cabinet Office, Foreign Office and British Trade International.

Elsewhere, MPs on the Business and Trade Select Committee said any inquiry into the role of UK trade envoys could only begin once legal proceedings against Andrew had concluded.

However, Labour MP Liam Byrne, who chairs the committee said it would “begin gathering information immediately” so it would be ready to launch an inquiry if it decided to once police action had concluded.