Big brother pulls rank and strips errant prince of titles

King forces Andrew to step back from royal duties after Giuffre sex abuse scandal and Chinese spy revelations

- ALASTAIR JAMIESON, BRYONY GOOCH

'With His Majesty's agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me' (Getty)

Prince Andrew has been forced to finally relinquish all his remaining titles - including the Duke of York - following another week of damaging scandal under pressure from his older brother, King Charles.

The prince is handing back all the remaining honours he clung onto despite being stripped of his HRH title and public duties by his mother, the late queen.

It comes just days before the publication of a memoir by Andrew’s late alleged victim, Virginia Giuffre, to whom he paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case, and after revelations he had held three meetings with a senior Chinese Communist Party official at the heart of the China spy case scandal.

Andrew will remain a prince, as he has been since birth.

His ex-wife, Sarah, with whom he still lives in a sprawling house near Windsor, will return to plain Sarah Ferguson - as she was prior to their royal wedding in 1986.