Daily Mail COMMENT

THE Mail’s revelations about Prince Andrew’s personal and financial links with the despotic ruler of Kazakhstan and his acolytes are profoundly damaging for the Royal Family.

But almost equally distasteful has been the blatant attempt by Buckingham Palace to sweep them under the carpet.

On Saturday we disclosed that the Prince acted as a ‘fixer’ for a Swiss/ Greek consortium bidding for infrastructure contracts in the oil-rich country. His role, for which he was to be offered nearly £4 million, was to smooth the way by persuading a powerful Kazakh oligarch – also a friend of his – to support the bids. The oligarch – Kenges Rakishev – just happens to be the man who negotiated the purchase of the Prince’s house, Sunninghill Park, in 200 at the hugely inflated price of £15 million, and is a close ally of Kazakhstan’s autocratic president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

When Mail journalist Guy Adams first approached the Prince’s spokesman, he flatly denied that Andrew had had any involvement in the infrastructure deal. We then furnished him with a copy of the personal email sent by the Prince to Mr Rakishev on behalf of the consortium. The spokesman first suggested it must be a forgery but then tried – unsuccessfully – to stop its publication on privacy grounds.

And in further disclosures today, we reveal Andrew’s role in the sale of Sunninghill – aka ‘Southyork’ - to the Kazakhs, a deal in which the Palace previously suggested he had no personal involvement.

This constant dissembling not only exposes the Prince to accusations of dishonesty, it undermines the integrity of the entire royal household.