Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is “not above the law” and should speak to the authorities in the UK and US about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The prime minister piled more pressure onto the former prince, as he joined calls for him to testify about his links to the late paedophile financier.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the Sir Keir insisted that “nobody is above the law”, and said: “Anybody who has any information should testify.
“So whether it’s Andrew or anybody else, anybody who has got relevant information should come forward to whatever the relevant body is, in this particular case we’re talking about Epstein, but there are plenty of other cases.
“Anybody who has got information relating to any aspect of violence against women and girls has, in my view, a duty to come forward, whoever they are.”
Sir Keir added: “One of the core principles in our system is that everybody is equal under the law, and nobody is above the law, and it is really important that is applied across the board.
“That is the principle. It’s a long-standing principle, it’s a very important principle of our country, our society, and it applies, and it has to apply in this case, in the same way as it would apply in any other case.”
On Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves also added her voice to those calling on Andrew to speak about what he knows about the Epstein scandal, saying he “owes it to the victims”.
The former prince has been further embroiled in the Epstein scandal after the latest tranche of released materials shedding further light on his ties to the disgraced financier.
Emails released appeared to show the former duke – who served as trade envoy between 2001 and 2011 – sharing confidential reports from his role as the UK’s trade envoy with Epstein.
A photo was also released of him kneeling over an unidentified woman who was on the floor.
The prime minister also addressed Peter Mandelson’s ties to the Epstein, saying “nobody has been harder on him than himself” over the decision to appoint him as US ambassador.
“I apologised for my decision to appoint Peter Mandelson to the role of ambassador, and I apologise to the victims for believing his lies,” he told the BBC.
“I have reflected a lot on that because having worked so hard in this field, for me to have accepted his lies was a mistake, and that’s why I wanted to apologise to the victims first and foremost for having accepted his lies, and I do so again now, if I may through you, to apologise for having believed the lies that were told to my team, and knowing the impact that that will have had on so many of the victims, and actually other people in Parliament and in my own party.
“That’s why I apologise because I reflected good and hard on that, and as I said to my parliamentary Labour Party, nobody has been harder on me in relation to that than I have been hard on myself.”
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