Gordon Brown urges probe into Andrew travel costs
Gordon Brown has said he challenged Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s expenses while he served as a UK trade envoy, and has now urged police to widen their inquiry to include the former prince’s use of public funds. The former prime minister said the issue was raised inside government in 2008 and should be examined alongside the existing investigation into alleged misconduct in public office.
In comments reported by The Guardian, Brown said he asked a colleague in the business department to question Mountbatten-Windsor about “unacceptable costs”, including the regular use of RAF flights, and said he was told the former prince’s response was to ask whether the government seriously believed he should have to travel commercially.
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office and released under investigation, with police assessing allegations linked to his time as a trade envoy and his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Brown argued the investigation should also consider whether public money was used beyond official duties, writing that officers should seek records from the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Business and Trade and the Foreign Office, which he said were involved in managing trips.
Brown also said that, when he was chancellor, the then prince sought a publicly funded fleet of aircraft separate from the RAF, a proposal Brown said he rejected and reported directly to the Queen. He wrote that emails contained in the Epstein files suggested the then prince claimed credit for securing privatisation of helicopters used by the royal family, and that he later sought a similar arrangement for aeroplanes.
The latest intervention is likely to intensify scrutiny of how official travel for senior public representatives was authorised and paid for during Mountbatten-Windsor’s tenure as trade envoy, and whether any rules on public spending were breached. Police and government departments may face renewed pressure to clarify what records exist and whether any further lines of inquiry are being pursued.
