Prince Andrew and Prince Harry face a new double humiliation from Buckingham Palace as officials are mulling ways to remove another of their significant roles, while also denying them Jubilee medals.
Palace sources say the Duke of York and Duke of Sussex are set to lose their status as Counsellors of State, on top of the various other titles they’ve had to forgo.
Counsellors of State are made up of the monarch’s spouse and the next four people in the line of succession who are over the age of 21.
They are authorised to carry out most of the official duties, such as attending Privy Council meetings, signing routine documents and receiving the credentials of new ambassadors to the UK.
Both Andrew and his nephew have been stripped of their royal patronages and military titles amid the former’s ongoing legal woes and the latter’s decision to quit ‘The Firm’.
Sources confirmed that they, along with Charles and William, are still two of the four Counsellors of State, who would be called upon to take the place of the Queen if she were unable to carry out her duties because of illness or absence abroad, but such status may not remain for much longer.
In a further blow, the pair also won’t be eligible for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal, according to the Telegraph.
Prince Andrew and Prince Harry face a new humiliation from Buckingham Palace as officials are plotting to remove another of their significant roles
Palace sources say the Duke of York and Duke of Sussex are set to lose their status as Counsellors of State, on top of the various other titles they’ve had to forgo
Counsellors of State are made up of the monarch’s spouse and the next four people in the line of succession who are over the age of 21
In a further blow, the pair also won’t be eligible for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal, according to the Telegraph
The medal marks the Queen’s 70 years on the throne and is awarded to serving members of the Armed Forces, police, fire, emergency and prison services, as well as royals who hold honorary positions in the military – the types that Andrew and Harry held until recently.
As such, the pair will be treated like all other veterans and won’t receive the award themselves, the paper reports.
Regarding the Counsellors of State titles, a royal source said: ‘It is a genuine problem that the Palace is looking to address.
‘Can you imagine the Duke of York having to sign official documents, for example, because the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge were both abroad, and the Queen became ill?
‘It’s not an exaggeration to say it could put the monarchy in jeopardy.’
A Buckingham Palace spokesman declined to comment, but sources suggested that Andrew and Harry could not be stripped of their roles without the law being changed.
An Act of Parliament would be needed to remove Andrew and Harry, perhaps replacing them with Princess Anne and the Duchess of Cornwall.
‘There could be events later this year which make such a change necessary,’ says the source, who declined to elaborate further.
The position of Counsellor of State was provided for in 1937 under the terms of the Regency Act.
Prior to 1937, Regency Acts were drafted and passed only in necessity.
As such, there had been nine separate Regency Acts to cover various eventualities since 1728.
Shortly after George VI came to the throne in 1936, a new Regency Act was passed which provided a rule for all future reigns.
It was at this time that the new office of Counsellor of State was created to cover short term absences where a regency would be unnecessary.
Prince Charles ‘invites Harry and Meghan to stay with him in UK in the hope of meeting Lilibet for the first time’, sources claim – but Sussexes’ refusal to return without Met Police protection puts reunion in doubt
Prince Charles has invited Prince Harry and his family to stay with him in the UK in the hope of meeting Lilibet for the first time, it emerged tonight.
The Prince of Wales is yet to see his granddaughter face-to-face, after she was born in California in June last year.
The offer, which would be the first time the family have fully come together since Harry and Meghan decided to quit as working royals, was made just before Christmas, according to the Mirror.
However, his son’s refusal to return without a substantial level of security from the Met Police is said to have put the reunion in doubt.
In recent months, the family have communicated via a series of ‘good natured’ calls, sources told the paper.
The first picture of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s daughter Lilibet was released in a Christmas card last month
The Prince of Wales (centre), during his visit to Haddo Country Park, Ellon, Aberdeenshire last week
One said: ‘The Prince of Wales has been saddened that he hasn’t had the opportunity to spend time with his grandchildren, which he really does miss.
‘He is a fantastic grandfather and loves playing the role immensely and it’s certainly fair to say he feels there is something missing from his life without the ability to get to know Harry’s children.
‘This is something he is hoping to remedy which is why he made the gesture for Harry, Meghan and the children to stay with him if they wanted to, whenever they may come home for a period of time.’
It comes as a former head of royal protection warned today that Prince Harry ‘cannot pick and choose’ when he wants to visit the UK and receive protection.
The Duke of Sussex should not be expecting bodyguards supplied to him when he decides to return home, Dai Davies said.
The ex-Met Police officer pointed out Princess Anne was nearly kidnapped and her protection officer was shot – but she does not get full time protection.
His comments came as sources suggested the Queen will not help her grandson in his demand for security personnel when he comes to Britain.
The insiders claimed the Monarch has no intentions of ‘caving into his demands’ for protection from the Met and Home Office.
Prince Harry faced outrage yesterday over his threat of legal action against Her Majesty’s Government.
He is seeking a judicial review of the decision to strip him of his UK police protection team, claiming it is too dangerous to visit without Scotland Yard bodyguards.
Last night there was anger at the unprecedented legal threat against the government as sources hit back saying: ‘Scotland Yard is not available for hire’.
Mr Davies, who was Operational Unit Commander for the Royals from 1995, told GMB: ‘He chose to go to America, that’s his prerogative.
‘And it’s our prerogative to ensure when we look at any aspect of protection, any member of the Royal Family that we actually look and assess it through various security agencies. That’s the crux.
‘And it’s been decided in this level, one they won’t supply him with protection because the risk at this stage is deemed low.
‘However should there be a risk when he comes then clearly the Metropolitan Police would be duty bound.’
Meghan’s mouthpiece Omid Scobie puts the boot in over Prince Andrew: Journalist compares how Duke of York kept his titles until the Queen’s ‘hand was finally forced’… with how Prince Harry was ‘stripped of privilege’ after Megxit
Meghan Markle‘s trusted journalist friend Omid Scobie today claimed the ‘ring of protection’ around Prince Andrew from the Royal Family had been ‘confusing’.
Mr Scobie said the ‘threat to Brand Windsor and the family business’ had ‘finally forced the institution’s hand’ after the Queen removed his honorary military roles.
The Harper’s Bazaar royal editor-at-large also compared the issue to Megxit, saying there was ‘no sympathetic support behind palace walls for the Duke of Sussex‘.
Mr Scobie added that Prince Harry ‘simply wanted to remove his family from an unhealthy environment’ but was ‘publicly dragged over the coals and stripped of his every achievement and royal privilege before setting one foot out of the country’.
The author also pointed out in the opinion piece that it was ‘a staggering 26 months before Andrew was dealt with’ after his disastrous BBC interview in November 2019.
Mr Scobie said he met a senior Buckingham Palace aide for drinks soon after the interview, who told him: ‘Well, he’s on his own now. He’s not our problem anymore.’
Harry and Meghan at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 before stepping down as senior royals
The author, who co-wrote the 2020 biography Finding Freedom about the Sussexes, regularly reveals news about them on Twitter and often writes in their defence.
Given this, it seems unlikely that Mr Scobie would have written such an article without speaking in advance to representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
And he wrote in an opinion piece for the i today: ‘For the public watching this saga play out, the ring of protection around Andrew has been confusing, especially when you compare his treatment to Prince Harry, who – love or loathe him – simply wanted to remove his family from an unhealthy environment.
‘There was no sympathetic support behind palace walls for the Duke of Sussex. Instead, he was publicly dragged over the coals and stripped of his every achievement and royal privilege before setting one foot out of the country.
Meghan Markle’s trusted journalist friend Omid Scobie wrote an opinion piece for the i today
‘The royal establishment has long spoken of its need to reflect modern day ethics. But when the selfish behaviour of a pompous prince is quietly protected in a way that Harry wasn’t, simply because Andrew doesn’t challenge the system, it is clear that this is an institution whose moral compass is in desperate need of repair.’
Mr Scobie was born to a Scottish father who runs a marketing agency and an Iranian mother who works in child welfare. He started his career on celebrity magazine Heat.
He rose to fame as one of the authors of Finding Freedom, a controversial biography about the Sussexes which he co-wrote with fellow royal expert Carolyn Durand.
The Court of Appeal heard last year that Jason Knauf, Harry and Meghan’s former communications secretary, gave information to Mr Scobie and Ms Durand – leading to Meghan apologising for misleading the court about whether he had done so.
Prince Andrew next to Harry and Meghan on the Buckingham Palace balcony in June 2019. Also pictured (front) are the Queen (left), James, Viscount Severn and Isla Philips (both right)
It came during a court row that ended with the Mail On Sunday being ruled to have invaded Meghan’s privacy over a letter sent to her estranged father Thomas Markle.
Mr Scobie, who has boasted of exclusive access to the couple, is also a royal contributor for Good Morning America and host of ABC royal podcast ‘The Heir Pod’.
It comes after the Queen removed Andrew’s honorary military roles in a dramatic Buckingham Palace statement last Thursday and he gave up his use of the HRH style.
One day earlier the sex lawsuit against him took a big step forward when a judge threw out his motion to dismiss the sexual assault case and ruled it can go to trial.
Andrew, who was born an HRH, will not use it any official capacity, and was stripped of his remaining royal patronages amid his complete removal from official royal life.
It was also seen as an attempt to distance the monarchy from Andrew, who was once second in line to the throne, in the year of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
He has been accused of a ‘tone-deaf’ defence in his legal battle with Virginia Giuffre after his lawyers suggested she may have ‘false memories’ of encounters with him.
In a scathing response to his demand for her mental health records, her lawyer David Boies said: ‘She wouldn’t misremember sexual abuse by a prince of England.’
Virginia Giuffre holds a photo of her aged 16, when she says Jeffrey Epstein began abusing her
The claim about memory issues was made by Andrew in legal filings over the weekend in the case brought against him by Ms Giuffre at a court in New York.
She claims she had sex with Andrew three times when she was 17 in 2001 while under the control of Jeffrey Epstein, the late paedophile who was friends with the duke. Andrew has vehemently denied her allegations.
His lawyers have asked to interview Ms Giuffre’s psychologist about all their sessions, any prescriptions that were issued and the ‘theory of false memories’.
Ghislaine Maxwell used a ‘false memory expert’ during her trial for trafficking and recruiting underage girls for Epstein, but was found guilty on five of six counts.
Source: Daily Mail
