A former diplomat has alleged that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor once made a “gratuitously rude” remark to a famous family. In recent weeks, the former Duke of York’s tenure as special representative for international trade and investment has come under increasing scrutiny, with retired civil servants claiming that taxpayers funded his massages and excessive travel costs.
It comes in the wake of his arrest by Thames Valley Police on suspicion of misconduct in public office on his 66th birthday last month, having been accused of sharing sensitive information with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He was held in police custody for 11 hours last month whilst officers searched his residence on the Sandringham Estate. Andrew, who continues to deny any wrongdoing, was released under investigation.
In a fresh revelation about his period as trade envoy, the UK’s ambassador to Italy from 2003 to 2006 has alleged that the disgraced royal insulted a member of a prestigious Italian fashion dynasty.
The purported slight reportedly took place in 2004 during a visit to Florence, where Sir Ivor Roberts claims that, upon being introduced to a member of the Schiaparelli family, Andrew replied: “I’ve never heard of you.”
Speaking to The i Paper, Sir Ivor added: “It was just gratuitously rude.”
Born in 1890, fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli came from a family of aristocrats and intellectuals – her father directed the Lincei library, whilst her mother’s ancestry connected to the Medici banking dynasty.
Known as a provocateur, Elsa’s designs “incorporate humour and surprise”, according to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Indeed, she played with “subversive details” and the imagery of the Surrealist movement.
In related developments, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently revealed one of Andrew’s proposals from his tenure as UK trade envoy.
In a recent column for the Daily Mail, Boris alleged that Andrew wanted to “knock down” Battersea Power Station, a Grade II-listed “architectural masterpiece” situated on the south bank of the River Thames.
Boris wrote: “The Duke of York had a series of ideas, perhaps gleaned from some of his international contacts, about how we could make London even more attractive to the world’s billionaire investors.
“Bear in mind that this was back in the good old days, before Starmer’s Pol Pot war on wealth creators. London at the time had more billionaires than any other city in the world.
“But the Duke thought that we could do better. Look at Battersea Power Station, he said. It was an eyesore, a ruin. It was blocking the development of a huge and potentially lucrative site at Vauxhall. Why don’t we just knock it down,’ he said.”