Pressure is building on Prince Andrew to relinquish the Royal Lodge in Windsor after it emerged he pays a peppercorn rent on the 30-bedroom property for more than two decades. The Crown Estate, which oversees royal land and buildings, released a lease document showing a 75-year agreement signed in 2003. He paid £1 million to secure the lease and has paid a single peppercorn a year, if demanded, with refurbishments completed in 2005 costing £7.5 million. The document also contains a clause stating the Crown Estate would have to pay Andrew around £558,000 if he gave up the lease (£1.2 million, €1.2 million; £7.5 million, €8.7 million; £558,000, €0.6 million).

Senior Conservative Robert Jenrick said it was time Andrew stepped back from public life and argued that taxpayers should not fund his living arrangements. MPs on the Commons Treasury Committee and Public Accounts Committee could examine the Crown Estate’s handling of the lease, while Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury Committee, urged Parliament to scrutinise money flows involving taxpayers’ funds and to seek answers.

The former prince announced he had stopped using his royal titles ahead of the publication of Virginia Giuffre’s memoir Nobody’s Girl, amid scrutiny of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, Sky and Amanda Roberts, have urged the police watchdog to review the Metropolitan Police’s decision not to continue investigations into her claims, calling for action if the police do not proceed.