Prince Andrew's 'cast iron' Royal Lodge lease means he is 'going nowhere' amid mounting calls to hand back keys

Pressure continues to grow on the royal to leave his grace-and-favour Windsor mansion, where he hasn't paid any rent since 2003.

This is amid his close ties to ex-billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, fresh allegations from Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoir about three alleged sexual encounters, and his links to an alleged Chinese spy.

Despite calls from the public and MPs alike for the prince to step back from his taxpayer-funded life, property experts told the Daily Mail his 'watertight' lease on the property meant he was going nowhere for now.

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Andrew has allegedly only paid just "one peppercorn (if demanded) per annum" while living at Royal Lodge, with estimates suggesting the market rate on the property could be in the region of £260,000 a year.

The lease details were made public by the Crown Estate - which hands its profits to the Treasury for the benefit of the nation's finances - have promoted questions over the the body's handling of the grandiose estate, which could be examined by a parliamentary committee.

Andrew signed a 75-year lease on his sprawling 98-acre home back in 2003, paying £1 million upfront and then agreeing to spend £7.5 million on renovations.

There is no break clause in the contract, which means King Charles cannot throw him out, despite having tried on numerous occasions to convince him to move.

On Tuesday, Conservative MP and Shadow Home Secretary Robert Jenrick insisted that Andrew has embarrassed the royal family and should move out of the lodge.

Labelling the royal "embarrassing", he said that it was “about time” he “took himself off to live in private”, adding that he believed “the public are sick of him”.

His comments came just days after Andrew voluntarily gave up his titles amid mounting public pressure over his links to the financier.

In line with Jenrick's comments, senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier alluded to the fact that parliamentary committees could probe the Crown Estate’s handling of such living arrangements.

It comes as Tina Brown, a friend of the late Princess Diana and former editor-in-chief of Tatler and Vanity Fair, claimed that Prince William and Kate "can't abide" Andrew.

She suggested that the royals want him to "disappear".

Writing on her Substack, Ms Brown labelled Andrew the "Duke of Dross".

She added that William and Kate must be wondering: "How do you disappear a 6-foot-tall, 190-pound, 65-year-old man in robust good health who has an iron-clad contract to live in the Queen Mother’s former mansion, a short neigh from Windsor Castle and just four miles from the new “forever” home of Prince William and Kate, who can’t abide him?"

In light of the scandal around his association with Jeffrey Epstein and the allegations of sexual abuse made against him by the late Ms Giuffre, members of the Royal Family are reportedly keen to remove Andrew from the Lodge.

MPs are now advocating for a change in the law to allow titled to be removed, with the SNP warning that new legislation must be brought forward without "any excuses and any further delay".

The SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: "The public knows this is the right thing to do - and even more importantly, the victims at the heart of the Epstein scandal know that it's the right thing to do.

"Those implicated in the Epstein scandal have been able to escape justice because they have hidden behind their power and privilege."

In her posthumously-released memoir, Ms Giuffre wrote about her three alleged sexual encounters with Prince Andrew – resurfacing claims of an underage orgy and that the royal believed having sex with her was his "birthright".

Andrew strenuously denies all the allegations made by Ms Giuffre.