EDITORIAL: Odious Andrew’s royal comeuppance is long overdue

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor — as he is now known — has always been an obnoxious, rude, weak-willed and entitled leech.

He epitomises the very worst of the British class system: a fetid combination of unearned privilege, idleness and immorality.

His downfall, entirely of his own making, is just and long overdue.

Despite his many and obvious character flaws, Andrew was for years indulged by the Royal Family.

Her judgment clouded by her love for her second and favourite son, Queen Elizabeth II protected Andrew from the consequences of his own stupid actions until it became clear she had no other choice.

It wasn’t until late 2019, almost a decade after his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein came to public light, that the Queen was finally compelled to sack Andrew from official duties, though she continued to grant him an allowance of £249,000 a year and allowed him to remain at Windsor Estate’s palatial Royal Lodge, on what has since been revealed to be a peppercorn lease.

King Charles III is thankfully unburdened by his late mother’s sentimentality for the Windsor family’s problem child.

The King’s move to evict his vile little brother from Royal Lodge and strip him of all of his titles is significant. It is the first time in more than a century a British royal has been deprived of the right to call himself prince.

But will it be enough to quell the public’s anger?

Andrew is no longer a prince, but he is no pauper.

He will be banished to as-yet-unannounced home on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk and will be personally funded by King Charles.

Perhaps the King decided that forcing Andrew, 65, to stand on his own two feet financially for the first time in his life was too risky, given the erstwhile prince’s evident lack of both morals and intelligence and his connections to sex traffickers, arms dealers and suspected spies.

Cutting Andrew loose entirely would mean losing all power to control him. Safer to keep him where the King can keep an eye on his brother’s activities.

It has been reported that Prince William and Princess Catherine were the driving force behind Andrew’s ousting. They saw with clear eyes that for the monarchy to survive long enough for their own son to inherit the throne, it must be seen in the public’s eyes as a net good for society.

Andrew was destroying that goodwill, through both his past actions and his present lack of contrition. Allegations that Andrew tried to recruit an officer from London’s Metropolitan Police to dig up dirt for a smear campaign against his sexual assault accuser Virginia Giuffre, are as nauseating as any of the other claims made against him (which he denies).

It is a tragedy that Ms Giuffre did not live to see Andrew’s humiliation, having taken her own life in April.

Her family say they are proud of her, and will continue to lobby for a criminal investigation into her allegations.

If that were to come to pass, Andrew may again find himself a guest of His Majesty.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.