Keir Starmer is under pressure to allow MPs to debate Prince Andrew in Parliament after Downing Street said the Government is not planning to make time to debate the royal scandal
Keir Starmer is under pressure to allow MPs to debate Prince Andrew in Parliament.
Downing Street said the Government is not planning to make time for MPs to debate the royal scandal in the Commons.
It came after Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said it could be debated in the chamber but that under parliamentary rules he did not have the power to allocate time to discussing the royals.
Labour MP Clive Lewis called on the PM to allow time for it to be debated. “The fact the government won’t allow time and the fact that urgent questions on the royal family aren’t accepted tells you who has the power,” he told The Mirror. “As elected MPs and legislators, we can’t hold the monarchy to account.”
He said MPs should be able to ask about “the tax breaks and the land that the royals own”. “These are questions we should be able to ask in our democracy,” he added.
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It emerged earlier this week that Prince Andrew has lived in Royal Lodge in Windsor on a peppercorn rent since 2003.
The Commons can only discuss Andrew’s friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and his rent-free mansion if there was a formal motion, but the Government controls the bulk of parliamentary time.
Ministers earlier this week privately called for him to leave the Windsor Estate, accusing him of being a “disgrace” who is “spongeing off the state”.
The Commons spending watchdog said it will look into the lease arrangements for the mansion. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said he will raise “a number of questions” with the Crown Estate and the Treasury.
No10 said MPs will not be given time in the House of Commons to discuss Prince Andrew’s conduct because the royal family wants Parliament to focus on “important issues”.
Asked whether ministers would allocate time for a debate, a No 10 spokesman said: “Prince Andrew has already confirmed he will not use his titles.
“We support the decision made by the royal family and we know the royal family would not want to take time from other important issues.”
Labour peer Lord Foulkes said the fact urgent questions – which are tabled by MPs to trigger a Commons debate – cannot be made on the royal family “illustrates dramatically how these ancient rules need urgent revision”.
“The authorities in both the Commons and Lords need to look at how they can be revised to enable legitimate scrutiny of the Monarchy and Royal Family by Parliament,” he told The Mirror.
Under Erskine May – the official guide to Parliament’s procedure – criticism of the royal family is not allowed unless part of a substantive motion.
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