Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor still features on a classified Whitehall register that entitles him to a full royal ceremonial funeral, it has been reported – despite King Charles having stripped of his official titles last year.
Senior government sources told the Mail on Sunday that the former Duke of York has not been removed from the confidential list maintained for members of the Royal Family expected to receive high-profile send-offs.
The arrangement sits within the Government’s so-called “bridge” contingency framework, an elaborate system of pre-planned funeral protocols for senior royals, for example, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, which operated under the name “Operation London Bridge”.
The plans are overseen by the Cabinet Office and are subject to ongoing review, it has been suggested.
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Royal commentators anticipate that any service would take place at St George’s Chapel within Windsor Castle, the 14th-century venue where both the late Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were laid to rest.
Burial would follow at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore, a 33-acre private cemetery in Home Park – the same site where King Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936, rests.
Experts also suggest the ceremony as currently planned could mirror that of Princess Margaret in 2002. Her funeral drew a congregation of around 400, with 30 members of the Royal Family in attendance, and required a substantial policing and security operation, with some 3,000 members of the public gathering to watch.
The revelation has provoked fierce condemnation from legal representatives of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Gloria Allred, the American attorney who has acted for 27 survivors, noted how the plans should be reconsidered given the 66-year-old’s alleged links to the convicted paedophile.
“Why should UK taxpayers bear the burden of paying his expenses either in life or after his death?” Ms Allred questioned.
Fellow US lawyer Spencer Kuvin, who represented nine of the convicted sex offender’s victims, was equally forthright: “Taxpayers should not ever be funding a funeral for a private individual.
“No public money should be used to benefit him during death. It’s an embarrassment to the Crown.”
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Both lawyers argued that a man now stripped of all royal standing merits no such publicly funded ceremony.
Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has continuously denied any wrongdoing in regard to Epstein.
The political reaction has been no less scathing. Alicia Kearns, the Conservative shadow Home Office minister, demanded to the outlet that the arrangements “should be revoked immediately.”
Meanwhile Tory backbencher Joe Robertson insisted that, following the removal of his titles, the former duke “is an ordinary citizen,” adding: “His funeral should be paid for privately just like everyone else.”
One unresolved question concerns who would serve as pallbearers. Traditionally, servicemen from regiments linked to a royal carry the coffin – eight sergeants from the Royal Highland Fusiliers performed that duty for Princess Margaret, their colonel-in-chief.
Mr Mountbatten-Windsor served as a Sea King helicopter co-pilot during the Falklands War and held honorary colonelcies of the Grenadier Guards, the Royal Irish Regiment, and the Royal Regiment of Scotland, though all military affiliations were removed amid the Epstein scandal.
Retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry, former captain of HMS Fearless, said: “The guy doesn’t relinquish being a naval officer. He had a Falklands medal and you can’t take that away from him, and he deserves the credit for that. If somebody said to me ‘Would you do it?’, I’d do it.”
The Cabinet Office declined to comment.
GB News have approached Buckingham Palace and Mr Mountbatten-Windsor for comment.
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