Why ministers want to talk about Andrew |
This afternoon’s Commons debate on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was unusual for all kinds of reasons. It was not just that the Speaker had decided that MPs could directly criticise the former Duke of York even though parliamentary convention normally prevents them from discussing the monarchy in the Chamber. It was not even that the government accepted the humble Address motion tabled by the Liberal Democrats calling for the release of the documents relating to Andrew’s appointment as trade envoy. It was also that the minister responding to the debate was able to spend most of his speech criticising someone else, rather than being on the defensive the whole time. There was, though, some confusion running through the entire debate about what precisely MPs wanted to criticise Mountbatten-Windsor for: was it his unsuitability as trade envoy because of his links to Jeffrey Epstein, or was it other aspects of his character?
Andrew would hardly be the first or last trade envoy who was rather arrogant and not very good at the business of being persuasive
Andrew would hardly be the first or last trade envoy who was rather arrogant and not very good at the business of being persuasive
Trade Minister Chris Bryant took some obvious pleasure in describing the former Prince as ‘a man on a constant self-aggrandising and........