‘Non-working’ royals raking in cash and living rent-free in palaces – including Andrew

An audit by the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed the disgraced former prince Andrew and his kids are making cash and/or living rent-free in palaces, despite performing no official duties.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his titles over the Epstein scandal. He has also been exposed engaging in dodgy dealings as UK trade envoy role his mother pushed for him to receive. His brother Charles paid out millions to settle the lawsuit brought against Andrew by the late Virginia Giuffre. But Andrew has continued receiving rental payments on the Royal Lodge estate he received rent-free from the Crown. The amounts have not been disclosed.

Andrew’s daughters Eugenie and Beatrice live rent-free in London’s Kensington Palace and St James’ Palace, as well as having posh homes in the Cotswolds and Portugal. In total, the family has twelve properties on the public purse via the ‘Crown Estate’ or the ‘royal household’. Mountbatten-Windsor received the Royal Lodge estate lease rent-free as he could not afford to pay for repairs to the estate before he took it over. That’s in spite of the fact he is a ‘non-working’ royal.

Andrew? ‘Appropriate’?

The arrangements for Eugenie and Beatrice are circular: the king’s ‘private money’ (privy purse) pays rent – but pays it to the royal household. Crown Estate money is public funds and any ‘profits’ are paid back into public funds to offset the massive costs of funding the royals, but this is cut out of the princesses’ arrangement. The various setups are arranged to remain technically legal.

As well as massive incomes from its inherited estates, the royal family costs the UK taxpayer some £500m annually in direct payments, security and other expenses. The various schemes to provide free palace pads and other fancy accommodation don’t appear to have been included in these calculations. A palace spokesman said that royal residences are being “filled appropriately”.

Featured image via Getty/Peter Nicholls