Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was today urged to do ‘the decent thing’ and remove himself from the royal line of succession following his arrest over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
The former prince, who has lost all his titles, remains eighth in line to the British throne.
Today a new YouGov poll, carried out after his arrest, revealed that four out of five Britons (82%) believe Andrew should be removed from the line of succession. Just one in 20 (6%) said he should remain.
And Downing Street is under increasing pressure to remove him using an historic Act of Parliament – if Andrew refuses to do it himself.
Andrew Bowie, a senior Tory MP, said it would be ‘the decent thing’ for Andrew to now voluntarily give up his place in the line of succession.
‘I think it would be the decent thing,’ the shadow Scotland secretary said.
‘Of course, if he’s found guilty of this, I think Parliament would be well within its rights to act to remove him from the line of succession.
‘But, let’s remember, he’s not been found guilty of anything just yet – he has yet to be charged with anything’.
Mr Bowie told GB News: ‘So we have to let the police investigation run its course, and I think we should all act accordingly subsequent to that.’
Yesterday Andrew became the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested after he was held in custody for around 11 hours on his 66th birthday.
He was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following accusations he shared sensitive information with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein during his time as the UK’s trade envoy.
A YouGov poll revealed that four out of five Britons (82%) believe Andrew should be removed from the line of succession. Just one in 20 (6%) said he should remain.
Andrew is pictured being driven away from a police station on Thursday following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He faces calls to do the ‘decent thing’ and remove himself from the line of succession
Searches were carried out at Andrew’s Norfolk home and he was later released under investigation by Thames Valley Police.
Andrew lost his royal titles and left his Royal Lodge residence in Windsor in October following fresh scrutiny of his links to Epstein. Royal Lodge continues to be searched.
Yet he remains eighth in line to the throne, just behind the children of Prince Harry, with an act of Parliament needed to formally remove Andrew.
Andrew has denied any wrongdoing over his Epstein links, but has not directly responded to the latest allegations.
A YouGov poll showed more than eight in 10 (82 per cent) of Britons think Andrew should be removed from the royal line of succession.
Only six per cent thought Andrew should still be eighth in line to be king.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the case of Andrew is something MPs will have to consider ‘when the time is right’ to make sure he cannot become king.
‘The most important thing right now is that the police be allowed to get on with their job, acting without fear or favour,’ he said.
‘But clearly this is an issue that Parliament is going to have to consider when the time is right, naturally the monarchy will want to make sure he can never become king.’
Constitutional experts said it would be a complex process to pass legislation to formally remove Andrew from the line of succession.
Robert Hazell, a professor of government and the constitution at University College London, said such a move would ‘require the involvement of the other 14 countries around the world which share the British monarch as their head of state: countries like Australia, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea’.
‘The last time this happened was for the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, which made the law of royal succession gender neutral,’ he added on The Constitution Unit Blog.
‘It took two years of protracted negotiations for all the different countries to amend their own laws or constitutions.
‘With Mountbatten-Windsor being only eighth in line, it seems highly unlikely that the UK Government or the other governments will want to expend time removing him from the line of succession.’
Downing Street last year said it had no plans to introduce a law to change the line of succession, with it considered incredibly unlikely that Andrew would ever become king.
Previous YouGov research found just three per cent of Britons had a positive view of Andrew, who has been progressively stripped of his honours and titles to strong public support.
Asked in October and November last year, 80 per cent of Britons backed the removal of his status as Duke of York, 79 per cent supported stripping him of his title as Prince, and 76 per cent approved of removing his military rank of Vice Admiral.
The public were more reticent to see Andrew stripped of his South Atlantic Medal, which he received for serving as a helicopter co-pilot during the Falklands.
More than a third (36 per cent) of Britons wished to see this campaign medal stripped from the former Prince, but slightly more were opposed (43 per cent).
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The former Duke of York was held on suspicion of misconduct in public office after a raid on his Sandringham home on his 66th birthday yesterday.
He looked visibly shocked as he left Aylsham Police Station in Norfolk last night after more than 11 hours in custody having been processed like a ‘common criminal suspect’.
A convoy of police entered Royal Lodge this morning as searches of his former home entered a second day.
Officers are guarding the Windsor mansion and a large black tent has been erected close to one of its entrances. More than a dozen vehicles – many of them from Thames Valley Police – are on the grand driveway.
The searches will continue there into Monday.
Meanwhile in Norfolk, where Andrew is now living, a police patrol car arrived at Wood Farm, Sandringham, at 6am.
Detectives are probing Andrew’s conduct as a trade envoy for the UK, after emails in the Epstein Files suggested he may have shared confidential information with his paedophile friend, including reports of his official visits and potential investment opportunities.
But leading UK lawyers believe that police, who are searching Andrew’s homes and have access to his devices, can now widen their investigation into any alleged sexual offences.
It came as the Epstein Files revealed that Andrew has been on the radar of US law enforcement, including the FBI, for approaching 15 years.
Marcus Johnstone, a leading criminal defence lawyer specialising in sex crime, believes that Andrew’s arrest will allow detectives to hunt for evidence related to sexual offences, including allegations Andrew allowed Epstein sex trafficking victims into Buckingham Palace.
Mr Johnstone told the Daily Mail: ‘Andrew’s arrest is not unexpected. His financial ties to Epstein are his legal weak spot.
‘Investigators will be using this as the basis to scrutinise his relationship with Epstein even further, and in doing so build a case that Andrew participated in some way in Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
‘His home can now be searched, and formal questions can now be put to him at interview’.
Richard Scorer, the head of abuse law at firm Slater and Gordon, said: ‘If prosecutors build a case which convinces a jury that Andrew misused his position to have sex with young women, in my opinion he could be pursued on that basis.’
A police officer stood on Royal Lodge’s grand patio on Friday as searches at Andrew’s former home entered a second day
It came as prime minister Gordon Brown has also submitted new evidence to at least four UK police forces in relation to ‘trafficked girls and women’ as he pushes for Andrew to face a wide investigation.
Using flight logs in the Epstein Files, Mr Brown helped reveal that Epstein’s paedophile’s Boeing 727–100 private jet, dubbed the ‘Lolita Express’ because he used it to host orgies and traffic girls, landed around 90 times in the UK.
The ex-PM has said the flights, many of them through Stansted, are ‘by far the biggest scandal of all’ and he has urged Scotland Yard to begin a sex trafficking investigation into the former Duke of York.
He said last night: ‘I have submitted a five-page memorandum to the Metropolitan, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and other relevant UK police constabularies.
‘This memorandum provides new and additional information to that which I submitted last week to the Met, Essex and Thames Valley police forces where I expressed my concern that we secure justice for trafficked girls and women.’
A haggard Andrew was driven away from a police station on Thursday night following his arrest that shocked the world.
Some 11 hours after officers knocked on his door on the Sandringham estate to arrest him on suspicion of misconduct in public office, a stunned looking Andrew was released under investigation.
As his arrest triggered arguably the biggest crisis in the monarchy for nearly 400 years, his brother, the King, insisted Andrew should be subject to the full force of British justice, saying: ‘The law must take its course.’
In an unprecedented and historic personal statement, Charles, 77, expressed his ‘deepest concern’ at the news police had picked up Andrew, on his 66th birthday, in extraordinary scenes on Thursday morning.
The King also pledged his ‘full and wholehearted support and co-operation’ with the ongoing police investigation.
The charge is a rare but serious crime, liable for trial by jury, and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
He has not yet been charged.
