Sir Keir Starmer has said Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should be prepared to share information about his connections to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew has ignored requests from members of a powerful US Congress committee to appear over links to Epstein, the convicted sex offender.
Asked whether Andrew should give evidence, the prime minister said: “A general principle I’ve held for a very long time is that anybody who has got relevant information in relation to these kinds of cases should give that evidence to those that need it.
“That would be my general position on this.”
A recently released email from Jeffrey Epstein described how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor did have his photo taken with Virginia Giuffre
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK (SDNY)/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Pressed on whether the position would apply to Mountbatten-Windsor too, Starmer said: “In the end that will be a decision for him. But my general position is if you have relevant information you should be prepared to share it.”
Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles last month after Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous repeated allegations that she had sex with him on three separate occasions, which he has always denied.
Democratic members of the House of Representatives’ oversight and government reform committee wrote to the former prince earlier this month asking him to testify.
The committee said it was “time for former Prince Andrew to come forward about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein”, adding: “The survivors deserve justice.”
Robert Garcia accused Andrew of hiding
UPI/ALAMY
Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, wrote that the group was “seeking to uncover the identities of Mr Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers and to understand the full extent of his criminal operations”.
He said Andrew’s “close relationship” with Epstein “coupled with the recently revealed 2011 email exchange, in which you wrote to him ‘we are in this together’, further confirms our suspicion that you may have valuable information about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators”.
• Epstein files: key takeaways from the latest tranche of emails
The letter gave a deadline of Thursday to respond but has received no reply from Mountbatten-Windsor. Unlike US citizens, Congress cannot force foreign nationals to appear before its committees.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein in 2000 at a shoot at Sandringham, where they stayed as Mountbatten-Windsor’s guests
ALBANPIX /REX FEATURES
Andrew’s name appears dozens of times in nearly 23,000 pages of private correspondence from Epstein published by the committee.
The committee has said it will continue to investigate allegations of abuse by Mountbatten-Windsor, with or without his co-operation.
Suhas Subramanyam, another member of Congress to sign the letter, accused the King’s brother of “hiding from us” and suggested that others “close to him” may come forward and provide the committee with information.