New law proposed to give King power to strip Prince Andrew of his dukedom
A law which would allow the King to formally strip Prince Andrew of his dukedom is being introduced in the Commons on Wednesday.
The prince announced last week he would stop using his Duke of York title to avoid distracting from the work of the royal family, but an Act of Parliament would be required to formally remove the dukedom.
York Central MP Rachael Maskell has set out legislation which would grant Charles the power to remove titles.
Remove titles
The proposed new law would give the monarch the power to remove titles on his own initiative, following a recommendation of a joint committee of Parliament, or at the request of the person who holds the title.
Ms Maskell said: “It is time for Parliament to act so that it can, or the monarch can, remove titles.
“The Duke of York title may no longer be being used by its holder, but it has not been removed.
“My short Bill, The Removal of Titles Bill, will fix this; I hope it can now be supported by Parliament.”
The Bill stands little chance of becoming law without Government support and ministers have resisted calls to act, insisting such decisions are for the King.
Ms Maskell had the Labour whip suspended in July after being a key figure in the revolt over welfare reforms.
The titles and honours Andrew will no longer use include his wedding day titles – Duke of York, the Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh, his knighthood as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and his Garter role as a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
Legislation has been used before to strip titles, notably descendants of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who were on the German side in the First World War.
Titles Deprivation Act
The Titles Deprivation Act 1917 was used two years later to strip the titles from Leopold Charles, Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow; Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Earl of Armagh; Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland; and Henry, Viscount Taaffe of Corren and Baron of Ballymote.
The law remains in force but as it refers specifically to the First World War, its provisions are unlikely to be relevant today.
Four out of five Britons want Prince Andrew to be formally stripped of his dukedom, a YouGov poll has suggested.
The survey showed that 63% of nearly 6,700 adults questioned were “strongly” in favour of formal removal of the dukedom and 17% “somewhat” supporting the idea, while 6% were opposed to it – 4% somewhat and 2% strongly – and 14% did not know.
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I think this guy would have a little, just a little, sympathy if he had not looked down his nose at the general public over the years. He has the demeanour of “Get out of my way peasant” about him.
The attitude of all of them has been flushed out for all to see by the unjustifiably so called ‘Prince’. An outrageous contributor of the Royal sycophantic magazine editor class said on LBC last night that he cannot be stripped of the title ‘Prince’ because his blood entitles him to it which begs the question, if you need a blood transplant, do you need to ensure that there is no unsuitable Royal blood in it in case you die?
Meanwhile there is another King across the pond that needs to be stripped of his title as well.
When I was a naive 23 year old in 1987 and after Thatcher had enjoyed two terms of destroying peoples’ lives, I thought asking the monarch for permission to form a government for a third time would be denied but it was waved through as usual and it was at that point I realised that this expensive pantomime was just that. Performative nonsensical theatre. It was then that I understood that the ‘Head of State’ was an ineffectual sitting pigeon of no consequence and my, how we do pay for it in so many ways. Surely King Charles the 3rd… Read more »
There should be an opt-out of contributing towards these lazy parasitic family of scroungers. For heaven’s sake this is 2025 and these leeches belong back in medieval times. What are they for? They have never earned a penny through grafting like everyone else has to. Everything they’ve got has either been stolen or given to them by the stupid we-must-obey taxpayers. We are forever told by a minority group of royalists that they are vital to the economy of the UK. Bullsh*t. They would say that because they probably earn their living serving or mooching up to the royals. Time… Read more »