Scandal-hit Andrew to hand over Pitch@Palace
THE Duke of York has reportedly resigned from his role with his flagship business project Pitch@Palace after days of speculation about his future with the initiative he founded.
Andrew appears to have bowed to pressure and stepped down a day after one sponsor said his plans to continue leading Pitch were “not tenable”.
High-profile business sponsors KPMG, Standard Chartered and Inmarsat, a British satellite telecommunications company, have all said they would not renew their financial support for Pitch while Barclays, a partner of the project, ended its association with the initiative on Friday.
The Daily Telegraph reported sources as saying Andrew was no longer leading Pitch, which would continue without any royal involvement.
Beleaguered Andrew also faces the prospect of Virginia
Giuffre – an alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim who claims she had under-age sex with the duke, which he strenuously denies – being interviewed on BBC’s Panorama programme early in December.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman would not comment on reports the duke had stepped down from leading Pitch.
She said: “The duke will continue to work on Pitch and will look at how he takes this forward outside of his public duties, and outside of Buckingham Palace.
“We recognise there will be a period of time while this transition takes place.”
Pressure had been mounting on the duke after his BBC Newsnight interview about Epstein, with a growing number of multimillion-pound businesses, universities and charities distancing themselves from him and Pitch@ Palace.