Norman Baker, a former government minister and expert on royal finances, says a new report into property deals for the likes of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shows there should be a probe into how the monarchy is funded
Every time you lift a royal stone, you find something nasty crawling underneath.
Today’s National Audit Report reveals that the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was not only living it up ‘rent-free’ in the massive Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, but had the cheek to let out three cottages attached to his mansion and pocket the cash. So not just ‘rent free’ but quids in.
Of course he’s not alone. His brother Edward lives ‘rent free’ in nearby Bagshot Park with its 120 rooms. And we now know he has been renting out the stable block for £130,000 a year. Nice non-work if you can get it.
Let’s be clear. This is not just murky behaviour. It is ripping off the taxpayer. Even strong royal supporters are beginning to ask why the ordinary taxpayer should be subsidising some of the richest people in the country with these uniquely generous deals.
The shameful fact is that our royal family has time and again shown that it is greedy for more and more public money, even though they are all so rich none of them need ever work again.
It was last year we learnt William and Charles between them have been charging our soldiers – fighting for King and country – to yomp across Dartrmoor.
Charging the Royal Navy to moor its ships. Charging the NHS almost a million pounds a year to park its ambulances in a derelict warehouse in London. Charging the cash-strapped Ministry of Justice £1.5m annual rent for the empty prison it has on Dartmoor.
Our royal family now costs us around half a billion every year, but it’s never enough for them. They always want more.
We need a full open inquiry by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee into all aspects of royal funding, and we need it now. Support for a republic has been growing fast, especially among young people. If the monarchy wants to survive, it had better start reforming itself pretty quickly.
