Prince Andrew stripped of New Zealand title
Prince Andrew has been stripped of his New Zealand military title, the Prime Minister has announced.
Buckingham Palace said yesterday the Queen had stripped Andrew of his royal titles, as he faces a lawsuit that he sexually assaulted an American woman when she was 17.
Jacinda Ardern said Andrew had also lost his titles in New Zealand as a result.
“In New Zealand, the Duke of York was formerly the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment (The Duke of York’s Own),” the palace statement said.
“As a result of patronages returning to the Queen, his appointment has now ended.
“Any further changes to royal patronages and appointments would be a matter for the Prime Minister to raise with the Queen of New Zealand in due course.”
NZ Republic campaign chairman Lewis Holden said they had been calling for Andrew’s title to be dropped since last year.
“Essentially the Government’s position up until now was that they’re not going to do anything, but obviously with the Queen removing his titles now, things should really change.
“There are very serious allegations . . . Regardless of what anyone thinks about the monarchy, it obviously leads us to the point where he shouldn’t have those titles in our armed forces. This also just highlights that it’s really nonsensical to have, even these titular roles, in the hands of British royals, because we end up being in situations where we have to wait for them to make a decision about these titles, which really just undermines our independence.”