Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor cost taxpayers more than £2m during his final four years as trade envoy, The i Paper can reveal.
Following a report that he commissioned into his role in 2008 his expenses rose by 15 per cent in a year, from £561,325 to £649,044, after he was awarded more funds from the government – despite consultants identifying costs that could be reduced.
Mountbatten-Windsor clocked up £286,301 in expenses after he announced he would be stepping down as trade envoy in July 2011, following scrutiny of his friendship with convicted paedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein. He carried out a further six international visits, including to Saudi Arabia and Singapore, with his final trip taking him to Thailand in the spring of 2012.
‘Eye-watering bills’
The former duke, who at the time was paid an annual sum of £249,000 by the Queen, did not receive a salary as trade envoy, but his travel and hotel stays, including those of his accompanying staff, were funded by taxpayers.
His expenses were recorded the Royal Family for his travel costs, and the now-defunct UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) for non-travel expenses.
The i Paper combined those expenses to calculate a total figure of £2,172,122, but the true figure is most likely higher as the royal accounts only included travel expenses above £10,000.
“Taxpayers will be appalled that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s trade envoy expenses ran to more than £2m, and the true cost is likely even higher once smaller travel costs and inflation are taken into account,” William Yarwood, campaigns director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said.
“These eye-watering bills show why transparency over taxpayer-funded royal duties should never have been optional.”
Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic, described the figures as “staggering” and called for “full disclosure and an inquiry into royal costs and expenses”.
He added: “It shows a complete disregard for public funds. This role was always about royal status rather than achieving anything significant for the UK, but these figures add to the impression the royals exploit these opportunities to live the jetset lifestyle at taxpayers expense.”
Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying it did not represent the former prince. Mountbatten-Windsor did not respond to a request for comment.
A Government spokesman said it was “fully co-operating” with the Thames Valley Police investigation, adding: “It remains a fundamental principle that no one is above the law.
“The role Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor carried out was not a trade envoy position as we would understand it today. They are now parliamentarians appointed by ministers who are unpaid and have a formalised set of rules of conduct.”
Nearly £20,000 for a two-week trip
Mountbatten-Windsor’s most expensive trip, combining flights and non-travel expenses, was £194,951 on a 13-day journey to central Asia and China in October 2008.
The most expensive flights for a single trip added up to £121,810 for an 11-day tour of Italy and central Asia, including stop-offs in Rome, Milan, and Almaty in Kazakhstan.
He also also flew by chartered jet for a one-day visit to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt, to co-chair the World Economic Forum at a cost of £55,269. Both trips took place in 2008.
Over the four years, more than half the trips cost more than £50,000, with 19 out of 36 above that figure.
Almost £400,000 was spent on Andrew’s visits to China during those final four years – a country where he was photographed socialising with women, including a model. The picture was taken by an aide, who emailed the image to Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor became trade envoy after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, pushed for him to take over the role from the Duke of Kent in 2001. During his tenure, he gained the nickname Air Miles Andy for his penchant for expensive travel.
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, after emails contained in the Epstein files appeared to show him sharing confidential documents with Epstein during his time as UK trade envoy. The 66-year-old has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Transparent accounting?
While Mountbatten-Windsor served as UK trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, his expenses and an annual review into his role began to be published from 2008 in a bid for transparency.
His work as trade envoy – which saw him visit 23 countries and carry out 429 trade-related overseas engagements in the year of his first annual review – was largely managed out of UKTI.
Analysis of UKTI’s deleted website shows his expenses between 2008 and 2012 – not including travel – amounted to £566,100. These expenses covered accommodation, staff costs and other bills.
Former civil servants have said that Mountbatten-Windsor claimed taxpayer-funded expenses for massages during his trips.
The figures also show the former duke’s non-travel expenses grew by the year until he stepped down from the role in 2011. They rose from £143,600 in 2008/09, to £156,500 by 2010/11.
Lump-sum costs per trip were uploaded onto this website, but many were below the true total due, because they did not include flight costs. For example, under a trip to Tunisia, the webpage says that “the cost to UKTI for this visit was £4.7k” when the true sum, including flights, was closer to £60,000.
The UKTI figures were unearthed using open-source methods. This included digging out saved versions of the site using an internet archive service and the National Archives. Two webpages were broken, so The i Paper examined their source code to confirm the missing expense figures.
Factoring in the flights
The costs of the flights taken by Andrew and his trade envoy staff greatly outweigh those of the bills published on the UKTI website, with travel in 2009/2010 costing £494,844 compared with his other expenses at £154,200.
In 2004, Mountbatten-Windsor’s travel costs began to be paid by the Royal Family’s grant-in-aid, which is funded by the Department for Transport. The royal accounts provided a lump-sum figure of £500,000 for that year.
From 2008 to 2012, his and his staff’s travel on the royal aircraft BAe146, private jets, and some commercial planes, cost £1.6m, according to the published records – which only include travel costing more than £10,000.
Eyes on the duke
Mountbatten-Windsor drew intense scrutiny from the press during his time as trade envoy, with reports noting when his visits appeared to coincide with sporting events such as Grands Prix, or when photos emerged of him aboard yachts. This included in 2002, when he was pictured among a group of women in bikinis on a millionaire’s speedboat during a trip to South America.
A National Audit Office review in 2004 examined whether there was a link between his trips and the dates of “sporting activities” and “golfing tournaments”.
A mission to improve the duke’s image was launched, with Mountbatten-Windsor commissioning a glowing review into his own work in 2008.
Archived versions of the UKTI website show the webpage was updated in July 2009 with a number of photos and a glowing summary of his activities.
“The Duke’s unique position gives him unrivalled access to members of royal families, heads of state, government ministers and chief executives of companies,” it said.
An aide defended his royal boss’s work ethic in 2007, telling a reporter when that when Mountbatten-Windsor was in Davos that year, he had worked from 7am to 11pm every day: “For three days straight, he really banged the drum for Britain – he didn’t go partying or skiing at all.”
