Rayner lobbied Buckingham Palace to remove Prince Andrew as King’s deputy

02 February 2025 , 16:55

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Rayner lobbied Buckingham Palace to remove Prince Andrew as King’s deputy

A new book claims Angela Rayner lobbied civil servants and Buckingham Palace.

Angela Rayner branded Prince Andrew "that nonce" and tried to block him ever stepping in for the King, a new book has claimed.

The Deputy PM fought to get the Duke of York taken off an official list of deputies if the monarch was unable to carry out his duties. While Labour was in opposition, Ms Rayer is claimed to have declared: "I’m not going to vote to keep that nonce on.

"I can’t go back to my constituency and say, ’Yeah, I support that’." Her call came in 2022 after King Charles ascended to the throne, amid calls for Andrew and Prince Harry to be removed as counsellors of state. Ms Rayner is understood to have been unwilling to let Andrew take on official duties as a result of his links to paedophile businessman Jeffrey Epstein.

Outraged that Andrew could remain in the position, she lobbied civil servants and Buckingham Palace to get his name removed, the book claims. An official told Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, authors of Get In, which covers Labour’s return to power: "She was very actively reaching out to the Palace, the upper echelons of the civil service.

"And said she thought this was a huge problem, and that the Government needed to address this, and that she would offer cross-party support to make sure it happened." The book is currently being serialised in The Times.

Andrew strongly denies any wrongdoing. US attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represents nine victims of the disgraced late financier, believes Andrew, 64, should face a new FBI probe following separate allegations made in court documents that he was still emailing the disgraced late financier two months after he claimed to have broken off contact. 

Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in 2019. In his disastrous Newsnight interview later the same year, Andrew claimed to have severed ties with him in December 2010.

But an email exchange from February 2011, uncovered in a court filing by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, which is defending an appeal by former Barclays boss Jes Staley, appears to contradict this. It allegedly includes Andrew telling Epstein: “Keep in close touch, and we’ll play some more soon!”.

Sophie Walker