Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor charged taxpayers for massages and excessive travel expenses while serving as the UK’s trade envoy, according to former senior civil servants who spoke to the BBC. The sources described a culture of deference within Whitehall that allowed the claims to be waved through.
A retired civil servant who worked in the trade department in the early 2000s said he was annoyed by a request to cover the cost of “massage services” following a Middle East visit. He refused but was overruled by senior colleagues. “I thought it was wrong … I’d said we mustn’t pay it, but we ended up paying it anyway,” he told the BBC.
A second source who oversaw finances in the area said they saw similar expense claims for Andrew’s trips and had “absolutely no doubt” about their authenticity. The BBC also reported claims for excessive flights, unreasonable numbers of hotel rooms, and charges for Andrew’s entourage. “it was like it wasn’t real money, they weren’t spending any of their own money,” one source said.
The costs were reportedly spread across different budgets, making them hard to trace, and there was little certainty over who was in Andrew’s entourage. The culture of deference meant checks on his spending were more “rubber stamp” than scrutiny, according to the sources. A third former civil servant said Andrew could be an ineffective envoy whose visits could harm local relations, adding: “He went off-script, he thought he was an expert, when he wasn’t. He thought he was funny, when he was being rude to people.”
The Department for Business and Trade did not deny the claims, instead referring to a statement from Thames Valley Police after Andrew was arrested last week, which said: “We continue to assess all relevant information and have no further comment at this time.” Mountbatten-Windsor was released under investigation after being held for more than 10 hours. There is no suggestion the behaviour described amounts to unlawful conduct, and his lawyers have declined to comment.
