MPs to debate the release of documents relating to the appointment of ex-prince Andrew as UK trade envoy
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has been giving interviews this morning. On the Today programme, he explained why the Lib Dem motion goes back to when Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed a trade envoy, in 2001. But Davey faced embarrassment when Nick Robinson, the presenter, read out extracts from a speech that Davey gave in 2011, when he was a trade minister in the coalition government and he was responding to a debate tabled by the late Labour MP Paul Flynn.
Flynn, a republican, used the debate to criticise the fact that, under parliamentary rules, he could not say anything critical of Prince Andrew, as he was at the time. Davey was replying on behalf of the government and, as Robinson reminded him, he said that Andrew had been a success in the role.
Davey said at the time:
I, for one, believe that the Duke of York does an excellent job as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment …. During [his time as trade envoy] he has been a long-standing success in the role, representing a continued interest on the part of the royal family in supporting British business and international trade and investment … Many who have worked with the duke have found that he is a real asset for our country in supporting UK business.
