LONDON (AP) — Documents show Queen Elizabeth II was “very keen” that the former Prince Andrew be given the job of UK trade envoy.
The U.K. government on Thursday released the confidential papers related
to Andrew’s appointment, just months after lawmakers accused the king’s brother of putting his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein ahead of the nation.
“The Queen is very keen that the Duke of York should take on a prominent role in the promotion of national interests,” the head of Britain’s trade body wrote in a letter.
Another document, a government memo sent to U.K. trade staff around the world, says that “HRH’s high public profile” will require “careful and sometimes strict media management,” in a reference to Andrew.
The involvement of the late queen will confirm previously held beliefs that the monarch held a soft spot for her son — an empathy that might have influenced her lack of decisiveness in dealing with allegations of Andrew’s connection to Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal title last year as King Charles III tried to insulate the monarchy from the growing fallout from the Epstein scandal. The former prince served as a special envoy for international trade from 2001 to 2011, when he was forced to give up the role because of concerns about his links to questionable figures in Libya and Azerbaijan.
The move followed the U.S. Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of documents related to Epstein. Those files showed how the wealthy financier used an international web of rich, powerful friends to gain influence and sexually exploit young women and girls.
Nowhere has the fallout from the document release been felt more strongly than in the U.K., where the scandal has raised questions about the way power is wielded by the aristocracy, senior politicians and influential business owners, known collectively as “the Establishment.”
During the parliamentary debate on Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Epstein, government ministers and other lawmakers demanded more accountability from the royal family.
Trade Minister Chris Bryant said Mountbatten-Windsor was engaged in a constant “self-enriching hustle’’ during his time as a working member of the royal family.
Mountbatten-Windsor was a “rude, arrogant and entitled man who could not distinguish between the public interest, which he said he served, and his own private interest,” Bryant said at the time.
