Should Starmer remove Prince Andrew's titles? Richard Kay weighs in and reveals why governments won't touch the issue and the 'can of worms' that would open in PALACE CONFIDENTIAL
Based on four years of painstaking research and hundreds of interviews, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, has been exclusively serialised by the Daily Mail.
From Prince Andrew's peculiar sexual habits to Sarah Ferguson 's friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Mr Lownie uncovered a long list of the York family's secrets.
'There is very little that the Royal Family can actually do when it comes to Prince Andrew,' said Daily Mail's Editor-at-Large Richard Kay on the latest episode of Palace Confidential.
'He's been effectively sacked. He's the only royal prince who has been sacked from public life that I can think of.
'Short of sending him far, far away - and who would want him? - I think it's very insulting when I keep reading suggestions of sending him to the Falkland Islands. Do the people there particularly want Prince Andrew? I doubt it very much.
'So it's difficult to know what to do with him. He's just going to be there. They have managed it fairly well. He doesn't have any kind of public role.
'What about stripping him of everything? Well, he was born a prince, and he was given a dukedom.
'The one thing they could possibly do would be to remove the dukedom, but I think it would have to come through parliament, and I can't see any government of any shade wanting to get involved in anything like this. It would open up a real can of worms.'
The question of whether the Duke should have his titles removed is this week's question in the Palace Confidential newsletter.
So far, just six per cent of readers have responded 'no' to the question
Richard stars on the hit YouTube panel show alongside Daily Mail's Diary Editor Richard Eden and Royal Editor Rebecca English.
Rebecca, who had covered the royal beat for the Daily Mail since 2004, added: 'It's a hugely tricky one for them because he is there and he exists.
'They can't airbrush him out - he is a member of their family.'
In an exclusive interview in the latest edition of the Daily Mail's royal newsletter, Palace Confidential, Mr Lownie said he contacted over 3,000 former school contemporaries, staff, colleagues and associates of the couple.
'Of whom 300 spoke to me,' Mr Lownie said.
'Some on the record, but most off.
'They felt it was time to challenge the York family's carefully curated narrative.
'It is difficult because there tends to be a code of silence about the royals (no one wants to be cast out of the privileged circle).
'Additionally, their staff have to sign NDAs, royals are not fully subject to the Freedom of Information Act and there are strict limits on what questions MPs can ask about them in Parliament.
'I could also add the letters I received threatening to sue me, before a word of the manuscript had been seen. Charming people.'
In the Palace Confidential episode, Richard Kay then goes on to point out that within the Royal Family, there is an instinct to 'circle the wagons and protect one of their own'.
He added: 'Their first response in all these cases is "Oh, it's just the press, it's the media". This is different. This is a graphic book written by a figure who has some substance in the writing he has done.
'You can't just brush this away.'
Richard Eden said: 'Certainly, what the King could do, and something that I have advocated for a long while, is strip him of his role as a Counsellor of State'
Having covered the royal beat for more than 20 years, Richard Eden had his own thoughts on whether Andrew should be stripped of his titles.
He said: 'Certainly, what the King could do, and something that I have advocated for a long while, is strip him of his role as a Counsellor of State.
'He and Prince Harry still have the legal right to deputise for the King. That could easily be stripped from them, as well as his title of Duke of York or other things if they wanted to.
'He is still in the line of succession. Yes, it would take an Act of Parliament, but that's no big deal.
'The King did it recently when he extended the list of Counsellors of State to include Princess Anne and Prince Edward. It could be done very easily indeed.
'That's something which I would strongly suggest he does.'
Elsewhere in the episode, the panel discuss the possibility of Prince William taking 'decisive action' about aspects of the monarchy in the years to come.
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