Andrew urged 'to comply' with Jeffrey Epstein probe request after titles stripped

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, has been urged by a Government Minister to comply with a US probe into the crimes of the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, if asked.

Describing Andrew as now "an ordinary member of the public", Sir Chris suggested he should go to the US to answer questions about the crimes of the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, if asked.

He said: "I think that just as with any ordinary member of the public, if there were requests from another jurisdiction of this kind, I would expect any decent-minded person to comply with that request. So I feel exactly the same in this situation."

He added: "What I'm basically saying is that I think that if Andrew is asked to do something by a Senate committee, then I would have thought that he would want to comply."

The Government "warmly" supports the decision to strip Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his titles, Sir Chris added.

Trade minister Sir Chris Bryant told BBC Breakfast: "We warmly, I warmly support what the King is doing today. I think the vast majority of people in this country will think that it's the right thing to do."

Meanwhile, York Central MP Rachael Maskell said the monarchy needed to become more "accountable" in the wake of the King's decision to strip Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his titles.

Ms Maskell told the BBC's Today programme: "I think the world's moved on, and we need the monarchy to be accountable by all means, not least to the public. When we saw 80% of the public saying remove those titles, I'm sure there is relief across the country now that that has been done."

Ms Maskell, who introduced a Bill in the Commons to make it easier for the King to remove peerages, suggested there was still a need to change the law.

She said: "We know that peers, for instance, have ended up in jail, so I think we need to look at the whole system. And my Bill would have enabled people with all forms of peerages, baronets and dukes and princes and princesses, to have those titles removed, a mechanism which could be carried forward, not for just one circumstance, but all circumstances."