One of Queen Elizabeth II's closest advisers was ousted from the Palace at the behest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after he warned the monarch that her son's business dealings risked damaging the Royal Family, Whitehall sources have claimed.
Sir Christopher Geidt – once described as one of the few people around the Queen 'willing to say boo to a goose' – spent ten years as the late Queen's private secretary until he was forced to leave in 2017 after a power struggle in the royal household. Sources have revealed that in 2019 – by which time he had entered the House of Lords as Baron Geidt and had been appointed a Permanent Lord-in-waiting – Lord Geidt was contacted by highly placed informants who warned him about Andrew's business dealings with Russian oligarchs.
One of the sources said: 'He said that he would pass on the information to his old colleagues at the Palace, but that he had long been aware of these issues and he had attempted to raise them before, "But the Queen just doesn't want to know". It seems clear that Andrew played a role in his departure in 2017.'
The revelation is the latest suggestion that damaging intelligence about Andrew could have been suppressed by the royal household for years because of the Queen's affection for her second son. Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that King Charles was warned as long ago as 2019 that the Royal Family's name was being 'abused' by Andrew's business associations. A whistleblower told the Palace in an email that the former Duke had secret financial links to controversial millionaire financier David Rowland, who was exploiting his royal links.
Sir Craig Oliver, director of communications for David Cameron when he was Prime Minister, has revealed that in 2011, when questions were raised about Andrew's trade envoy role, he joined a meeting 'with a senior adviser to the Queen', who is understood to be Lord Geidt. Sir Craig said 'the bulk of the conversation with the adviser was about Prince Andrew, who was starting to appear in the media for spending more time on louche holidays than he was executing his official duties as UK trade envoy'.
