Prime Minister backs booting Andrew from royal line of succession
The PM has written to his British counterpart expressing Australia’s position on the royal line, the first country to back the plan.
Source: Sky News UK
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has officially backed a proposal to remove disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession.
Albanese confirmed his support in a letter to British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, making Australia the first country to back such a plan.
It comes amid another bombshell arrest in Britain in the ongoing fallout from the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s files.
Britain’s former ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, was arrested on Tuesday (AEDT) on suspicion of misconduct stemming from his ties with Epstein.
Any push to prevent Mountbatten-Windsor from remaining in line to take the throne would require all Commonwealth nations to pass new laws.
Albanese wrote to Starmer to say Australia would agree to any proposal brought by the British government to prevent the embattled prince from ever becoming king.
“In light of recent events concerning Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, I am writing to confirm that my government would agree to any proposal to remove him from the line of royal succession,” he wrote.
“I agree with His Majesty that the law must now take its full course and there must be a full, fair and proper investigation.
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“These are grave allegations and Australians take them seriously.”
The PM’s letter to Starmer.
Mountbatten-Windsor is eighth in line to the throne, which means he could technically become Australia’s head of state.
Such a scenario is unlikely because it would require the death of the King, Prince William, Prince Harry and five royal children who are all higher in the order than Mountbatten-Windsor.
Britain is considering removing the former from the line of succession as a symbolic move after his arrest.
Such a change would likely require legislation in Britain and all other countries that still have the British monarch as their head of state, including Australia.
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested last week, on his 66th birthday, after a trove of emails released in the US suggested he leaked confidential documents to Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy.
The former prince has also been dogged by accusations he sexually abused Virginia Roberts Giuffre and other women when they were teenagers — claims he denies.
Albanese has described his arrest as a fall from grace but says he is not planning a referendum for Australia to become a republic.
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Meanwhile, British police have arrested Mandelson in another misconduct probe stemming from his ties with Epstein.
London’s Metropolitan Police force said on Monday “officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office” at an address in north London.
It did not name Mandelson, in keeping with British police practice, but the suspect in the case has previously been identified as Mandelson.
Police are investigating Mandelson over documents suggesting he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago.
He faces no allegations of sexual misconduct.
Mandeslon’s arrest comes four days after Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of a similar offence related to his own friendship with Epstein.
Mandelson was fired from his diplomatic post in September after the publication of emails showing that he remained friends with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offences involving a minor.
When more details emerged in documents released by the US Justice Department last month, police opened a criminal probe.
The Epstein files suggest that Mandelson passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to Epstein in 2009, when Mandelson was a member of the then-government.
Officers subsequently searched Mandelson’s two houses in London and western England.
The decision to appoint Mandelson nearly cost Starmer his job as questions swirled around his judgment in someone who has flirted with controversy during a decades-long political career.
Though he has acknowledged a mistake and apologised to victims of Epstein, Starmer’s position remains precarious.
His future may rest on the release of files connected to Mandelson’s appointment.
-with AAP
