Andrew ‘said there’s no need for the RAF’ and Dolly the sheep was ‘rubbish’, Lib Dem MP claims in Commons
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was taken into custody on suspicion of misconduct in public office last week.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor "said there’s no need for the RAF" and Dolly the sheep was "rubbish", a Liberal Democrat MP has claimed in the House of Commons.
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Monica Harding said her late father-in-law, who was an air vice-marshal, had been at a dinner overseas with Andrew.
She said: “[He] said in front of many foreign military and diplomatic seniors ‘no need for a Royal Air Force'."
She said the comment had been raised with the chief of the air force.
Ms Harding also told the Commons the former prince spoke "against British commercial interests".
She said: “When I was working overseas for the British Council, Mountbatten-Windsor came to an exhibition that I was putting on about Dolly the sheep, which was a fine example of British scientific innovation.
"Mountbatten-Windsor stood up in front of Japanese dignitaries and business people and said, ‘This is rubbish, this is a Frankenstein sheep’.”
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Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, added: “If the trade envoy was actually speaking against British commercial interests, that raises even greater questions.”
In the Commons, trade minister Sir Chris Bryant described Andrew as “a man on a constant self-aggrandising and self-enriching hustle” and “a rude, arrogant and entitled man who could not distinguish between the public interest, which he said he served, and his own private interest”.
Ministers have agreed to release files related to the appointment of Andrew to the trade envoy role.
However, MPs were told the Government is unable to publish material that police need for their inquiries until officers are “satisfied”.
The former Duke of York faces accusations of sharing sensitive information with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein while acting as a special representative for trade and investment between 2001 and 2011.
He was taken into custody on suspicion of misconduct in public office last week, before being released under investigation.
This came days before Lord Peter Mandelson was also arrested following similar allegations of passing sensitive information to Epstein, during his time as business secretary.
The former Labour minister was released on bail in the early hours of Tuesday, after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.