Baroness Harman has said Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest has heightened the need for him to testify to US politicians about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
It follows the former prince being taken into custody by Thames Valley Police on Thursday – his birthday – over allegations of misconduct in a public office. He has previously denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Speaking to the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Harriet Harman said: “I think it also makes it even more important that Prince Andrew agrees to go to give evidence to Congress on the investigations that they’re doing there.”
The US Congress has been publishing documents relating to deceased paedophile Jeffrey Epstein over recent months, the so-called Epstein files.
In November, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee wrote to the former prince, asking him to travel to Washington DC to testify before them about his relationship with the disgraced financier.
This followed Mountbatten-Windsor being stripped of his royal titles.
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Speaking following his arrest, Baroness Harman told Sky News political editor Beth Rigby: “Well, I think it was inevitable once there was started to be investigation on Peter Mandelson for leaking information, which was supposedly confidential government economic and commercial information, that if those emails appeared to show Prince Andrew when he was trade envoy doing the exact same thing, that he would have to be investigated and arrested as well.”
Lord Mandelson remains under police investigation over allegations he leaked government information while serving as business secretary – under then-PM Gordon Brown – something he denies.
Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed by the government as a trade envoy in 2001. He held the role – which gave him had access to senior ministers and business contacts – for a decade, in which time he travelled the world promoting the UK.
Baroness Harman continued: “I think that this is an absolutely unprecedented moment of huge implications because I think what’s happened is that Epstein emails have broken open the secrecy about how very rich, powerful, and sometimes royal men behave.
“Remember that Andrew has been arrested by police who are part of His Majesty’s constabulary. These are the King’s police. If it were to go to court, it is His Majesty’s court. But as the prime minister said, nobody should be above the law.”
She said the arrest would have “huge implications” for the Royal Family.
Her podcast co-host, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, agreed, saying images of police cars arriving at the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk to arrest Mountbatten-Windsor are the “sort of pictures you never thought you would see”.
She added: “The human side of me is thinking, thank God the late queen didn’t live to see this, because it would have broken her heart.
“But then the kind of, the rational side of my brain kicks in. People who may have committed crimes – that we’re finding out about through the Epstein trials being opened – should face that in the same way.”
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Ms Davidson added: “Even the investigations happening now, none of them are touching at the fundamental question of why were young women and girls trafficked around the world to be abused by rich and powerful men and why are no rich and powerful men being questioned about that element of any of this.”
You can listen to the full episode of Electoral Dysfunction tomorrow morning.
