Prince Andrew’s finances should be investigated by MPs and tax authorities after it emerged that he received a £1.5million off-shore payment from a banker friend, campaigners and experts have said.
The Duke of York faced mounting scrutiny yesterday over whether he broke the Royal Family’s conduct rules by accepting the money from Tory donor David Rowland.
The Queen’s scandal-hit second son received the payment days before he paid off a loan from the financier’s own Luxembourg bank.
Buckingham Palace conduct rules state that royals should ‘never accept gifts of money, or money equivalent, in connection with an official engagement or duty’.
They are also told to avoid gifts that ‘would, or might appear to, place [them] under any obligation to the donor’.
The Queen and Prince Andrew are under increasing scrutiny after accusations that he received money from Tory donor David Rowland.
Mr Rowland and Prince Andrew, former business partners, were pictured together in 2006 at Royal Ascot.
Andrew (61) has declined to confirm whether any amount of money was refunded to him from a Guernsey-registered company in 2017.
Former Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, an expert on royal finances, said he would be writing to the public accounts committee calling for an investigation into the duke’s finances.
He also called for HMRC to check if Andrew had paid tax ‘on any income’.
Mr Baker said: ‘The fact is the requirements on the royals are far less than people who are in elected office.’
A spokesman for Andrew said: ‘In accounting terms it was all duly logged and taxes paid and everything went across the books in the proper way.’
Photograph of Mr Rowland in front the High Court in 2017. It is alleged he made a payment to Prince Andrew days before the Duke of York paid off a loan from the financier’s bank
Graham Smith, chief executive of campaign group Republic, said: ‘When someone is paying a public figure large sums of money the question has to be: What do they want in return?
‘There needs to be an urgent investigation into royal lobbying and cash for access, starting with Prince Andrew.’