A senior government minister has said that parliament should look at changing laws to allow Prince Andrew to be officially stripped of his titles if The King decides that is what is needed.
Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, that calls for a change to laws to allow the permanent removal of an hereditary title would be ”guided by the royal family” before adding ”I imagine the royal family would want parliament to dedicate our time to our wider legislative programme. But we will be guided by them on it.”
Several MPs have called for an alteration to existing laws so that Prince Andrew’s title of Duke of York is removed for good.
On October 17, the prince issued a statement in which he said he was giving up all his titles and honours. He was made Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh in 1986 when he married Sarah Ferguson.
However, his decision is voluntary and he still has possession of the titles. They will only become extinct on his death.
Current rules mean an Act of Parliament is required to permanently remove a title, whether the holder is royal or not.
However, since Prince Andrew made his announcement, several MPs have called for a change in the law to take the title away for good now.
Among them is Rachel Maskell, who is MP for York Central. She was elected as a Labour MP in 2024 but has since lost the whip after rebelling against the government line on welfare reform.
She told the BBC that ”Having sought to change the law through my Removal of Titles Bill, I now think it is time for this legislation, which provides the King new powers to be able to remove titles or for a grand committee of both Houses of Parliament to make a recommendation to the King to remove a title.”
Ms Maskell added that ‘‘It’s a single clause bill which I’m proposing, so it wouldn’t take up time, but it would make a real difference should these occurrences arise.”
Bridget Phillipson was then asked about the comments and replied ”the government, by long-standing convention, doesn’t involve itself in matters concerning the royal family. The royal family don’t involve themselves in the business of government…”
Prince Andrew is under fresh scrutiny after new details of his relationship with convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, emerged. He kept in contact with him beyond the date he had previously said he cut ties with him. A posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre details how she was made to have sex with Andrew when she was 17. The prince denies those claims.
In recent weeks, Andrew’s former wife, Sarah, has also been dropped as patron of a number of charities after an email was published showing her apologising to Epstein, who died in 2019, for disowning him in an interview.
After Prince Andrew relinquished his titles, Sarah confirmed she would drop her courtesy title of Duchess of York and revert to her maiden name of Sarah Ferguson.
The titles of Andrew and Sarah’s daughters are unchanged – they remain Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. They, like their father, retain their places in the line of succession.
Meanwhile, Prince Andrew’s biographer has suggested that changing the law to remove the title is relatively straightforward.
Andrew Lownie told The Daily Telegraph that the Peerage Act of 1963 could be altered quite quickly, adding that ”the act allows a peer to disclaim their peerage within 12 months of succeeding to it. An amendment would simply give the first holder of a hereditary peerage…to do the same within x days of the commencement of the Act.”
Prince Andrew hasn’t been seen in public since the announcement that he was giving up his titles.
