This means he retains a royal rank despite the dramatic moves – not seen in centuries – to cancel the dukedom of a monarch’s brother.
The brother of Roberts Giuffre, Sky Roberts, welcomed the King’s actions but said he would like to see the former prince face charges over the accusations against him.
A reporter holds up a copy of The Sun newspaper outside the gates to the Royal Lodge.Credit: Getty Images
Roberts Giuffre, whose memoir was released last week, asserted in legal depositions over many years that Mountbatten Windsor abused her when she was 17 and working for Epstein and Maxwell.
Another young woman, Johanna Sjoberg, testified that she saw the then prince with Roberts Giuffre in Maxwell’s home in New York in 2001.
Mountbatten Windsor has repeatedly denied meeting Roberts Giuffre, denied having sex with her and rejected her claims of sexual assault.
In a sign of the looming argument over whether to take further action against the King’s brother, some British MPs privately backed Trickett on the idea of changing the line of succession.
Experts said the change would require matching laws by more than a dozen realms including Australia to ensure the former prince could not be considered an heir to the throne, similar to changes made more than a decade ago to introduce gender equality into the succession.
“That would require legislation, not just by the UK, but by all 14 realms, similar to the legislation to change the line of succession by introducing gender equality,” said Robert Hazell, Professor of Government and the Constitution at University College London.
Professor Hazell told this masthead the changes on gender equality took several years to accomplish across the parliaments in every realm after then UK prime minister David Cameron outlined the changes in 2011.
The Australian parliament passed the Succession to the Crown Bill in March 2015. State parliaments approved the same changes.
Given that each realm passes its own law on the matter, any MP in any realm could propose a law on the succession.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is pushing back, however, with his office saying there were “no plans” for any change to the law on this question.
