Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on Prince Andrew's future at Royal Lodge facing doubt

Prince Andrew’s future at Royal Lodge is in doubt after the collapse of a business deal that was intended to provide a financial lifeline.

The deal would have allowed the prince to abide by the terms of his lease, by paying for the hugely expensive upkeep of the vast Windsor estate.

Without it, he could face eviction from the 30-room property, on which he has not paid rent for 20 years.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey unpacks the backlash further. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin gray Are UK correspondence with us Hallo Gevin, Hi
have a heller, right, So what's the latest with Andrew?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, it's the story that is not going to go
away and must be really mounting further pressure on the
rolls to do something more about it, mainly now because
the MPs are getting involved. They can't understand why they
decided their or family decided not to actually strip him
with the title, saying yes, it would have taken up
parliamentary time, but so what that sounds like a bit

(00:30):
of an excuse to some people. And now of course
his living arrangements are under scrutiny. He has this huge,
thirty roomed lodge in Windsor, not far from the castle,
in beautiful grounds and he's paying a peppercorn rent on it. Now.
He signed the lease through until twenty seventy five, and
property experts are saying, from what they can see it

(00:52):
is cast iron. Nobody could kick him out, and that's
led some to say, well, hang on, how was this negotiated?
Who negotiated it and why is he only paying a
peppercorn rent and can still afford to stay there? A
senior opposition figure one that many people tipped for the
top job. Robert Jenrick said it was about time quote
Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private, because

(01:13):
the public are sick of him, and many are saying
it's time the Prince compensated the taxpayer for the lost
rent on this royal lodge, something he would not be
able to do, and say that parliamentary committees could look
into the Crown of State's handling of the prince's living arrangements.
The heat is most certainly being turned up Heather. And
if the royals thought that by him agreeing not to

(01:36):
use his titles would put a lid on it, that
was a huge miscalculation, which.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I could have told them and did tell them. Well
I didn't tell then, but I said it on Monday
because it was so obvious that this was going to
get out of hand. But now so tell me we
were at with the MPs who are trying to strip
him of his princeship. Is that actually going to happen?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Well, basically, they can't, I think, do it on their own.
It has to be initiated by the King, who seems
reluctant to do that. But I think as pressure grows
and no doubt Prince William, who is apparently absolutely determined
that when he takes over as king, this will be done.

(02:16):
I think he's in the King's ears saying, Dad, you've
got to just separate this. You've got to separate the
mess surrounding Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson from the rest
of us, because it is bringing the whole of the
royal family into disrepute for the first time in five
hundred years. This week, the King of England will pray
with the Pope. It'll get next to no headlines because

(02:38):
of what Prince Andrew is doing, and the Royals would
be very annoyed about that too.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Right now, what do you make of Ukraine heading that
Russian chemical plant with the long range missiles of the
uk Kevin.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, this, of course is something that the Ukrainians have
been begging for longer range missiles in order to hit
the heart of Russia. It was a successful hit that
penetrated the Russian air defense system. The Ukrainian General staff
said that they're still assessing the outcome of the massive strike,

(03:10):
but they're saying the Briance chemical plant is really a
key facility of Russia's military industrial complex producing gunpowder, explosives,
rocket fuel components, ammunition, and missiles. And they're saying that
it'll really really ramp up pressure now on Vladimir Putin
to come to the table, because we do know that

(03:30):
the most recent meeting plan between Trump's team and Vladimir
Putin's team has been postponed indefinitely, with Trump saying he
didn't want a wasted meeting because Russia is saying, no,
we're not ready to stay where we are. We're not
going to keep the front lines where we are. We're
going to carry on. And that has led to a
joint statement signed by Ukrainian, German, French, Italian, Polish, Danish, Finnish, EU,

(03:52):
Norwegian leaders and British leaders saying Ukraine must be in
the strongest possible position before, during, and after any ceasepar. So,
although Russia has warned people not to give Ukraine long
range missiles, saying that it could bring them into the fight,
well the uk has done just that and now the
pressure is on Russia on America to do the same

(04:15):
and give Ukraine permission to use long range Tomahawk missiles.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Interesting, Devin, thank you as always, love chatting to we'll
talk to you in a couple of days. It's Kevin Gray,
are UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
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