“Woke Royals”

Prince Andrew faces a pincer movement from parliament and Buckingham Palace to strip him of his dukedom and banish him from his 30-room mansion in Windsor.

MPs are set to discuss Andrew’s future, defying years of convention that usually prevents politicians from ­criticising the royal family.

The Liberal Democrats have ­signalled that they intend to use their next Opposition Day debate to allow members to consider officially removing Andrew’s Duke of York title and discuss his continued use of Royal Lodge. Although such debates are rarely binding, it will allow the Commons to “express its will” and heap pressure on the ­government and the King to act.

Prince Andrew is in talks with Buckingham Palace to vacate Royal Lodge, it has been claimed.

To get him to move, the King may be required to offer compensation and alternative living arrangements, most likely in one of his private homes.

Prince Andrew is facing mounting pressure from ministers and senior politicians to leave his grace-and-favour mansion on the Windsor Estate after accusations that he is a “disgrace” who is “sponging off the state”.

The Times disclosed this week that Andrew has not paid rent on Royal Lodge, a 30-room property, for two decades.

The prince agreed to pay £1 million plus at least £7.5 million for refurbishment of the lodge, which entitled him and his family to live in the property rent-free until 2078. The agreement states that if the prince chooses to leave the property he will be compensated but cannot be evicted.

More … Prince Andrew’s Royal Lodge lifeline collapses

Prince Andrew’s future at Royal Lodge is in doubt after the collapse of a business deal that was intended to provide a financial lifeline, the Telegraph can reveal.

The deal would have allowed the Prince to abide by the terms of his lease by paying for the hugely expensive upkeep of the vast Windsor estate.

Without it, he could face eviction from the 30-room Windsor property, on which he has not paid rent for two decades.

Buckingham Palace may have hoped that Prince Andrew giving up his titles might decisively draw a line under the scandals – but the problems for the Palace show no sign of going away.

It seemed that it was the public’s outcry that forced the Palace to recognise that something had to be done, before Andrew was pushed into giving up titles such as the Duke of York.

That raises questions about whether the Palace should have acted sooner in responding to events involving Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein that happened many years ago.

Duke of York launched smear campaign to ‘cast doubt’ on Virginia Giuffre’s credibility, memoir reveals

Prince Andrew’s team tried to hire “internet trolls to hassle” Virginia Giuffre, her posthumous memoir has claimed.

In her book Nobody’s Girl, which was published on Tuesday, Giuffre also reveals details about behind-the-scenes negotiations during civil litigation ahead of the Prince’s scheduled deposition.

This eventually led to a settlement deal, which came after her lawyer read Andrew’s agreed statement to her at 2.30am “through tears, both hers and mine”.

Prince Andrew allegedly asked his taxpayer-funded Metropolitan Police bodyguard to gather information on Virginia Giuffre.

Documents show Andrew saying he had asked one of his elite personal protection officers to find damaging information about Giuffre shortly before a notorious photograph of the pair with Ghislaine Maxwell was published in 2011, according to the Mail on Sunday.

There is no suggestion that the officer complied with this request.

Jeffrey Epstein secretly bankrolled Sarah Ferguson for 15 years, astonishing new emails claim.

The convicted paedophile complained to friends about the disgraced duchess’s scrounging ways in messages that suggest his financial support went far beyond the £15,000 she admitted taking from him.

In the previously unseen emails, Epstein reveals Fergie was so desperate to cosy up to him that ‘she was the first to celebrate’ his release from jail ‘with her two daughters in tow’. Princess Beatrice would have been 20 at the time and Eugenie 19, the same age as many of his victims.

When the late Queen Elizabeth II gave her favourite son the title Duke of York on his wedding day in 1986, she was entrusting him with a dukedom that was cherished by her more than any other.

Her beloved father and mother were the Duke and Duchess of York before they became George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She herself was born Princess Elizabeth of York and her grandfather George V had also held the title.

It was the greatest of gifts and a compliment that Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, returned by demeaning and degrading the dukedom for nearly 40 years.

More … Beatrice and Eugenie are caught between Firm and family

There was a time when Prince Andrew was seen as the golden boy, the Falklands war hero and dashing helicopter pilot who could do no wrong.

Even before his time in the Royal Navy, Andrew was widely admired as a fresh-faced prince with the charm and charisma that his older brother Charles could only dream of.

Andrew, Charles said, was “the one with the Robert Redford looks of the family”.

Prince Andrew is set to give up all of his titles, including the Duke of York, the Telegraph understands.

The development follows a string of new scandals concerning his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.

It is understood he will put all his titles “in abeyance” having come under huge pressure from the King.

The Royals have suffered a lot of damage. Can they recover?

The King has signalled that Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, will not be welcome at the royal family’s Christmas celebrations this year.

Sources close to Charles indicated he will keep the duke and duchess at arm’s length after it emerged that Sarah maintained ties with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted paedophile, despite publicly denouncing him in 2011.

The King has also made clear that he would prefer the pair, who divorced in 1996, to be “invisible” at future gatherings.