MPs urged to remove Andrew's royal titles

Parliament is under mounting pressure to examine what the royal family knew about Prince Andrew’s links to Jeffrey Epstein, and to introduce a mechanism to strip him of his titles.

- Eleni Courea Alexandra Topping Hannah Al-Othman

There were calls last night for Andrew to face a police investigation and for ancient rules barring parliament from freely scrutinising royals and formally removing their titles to be revisited.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed it was looking into claims that Andrew asked his Met bodyguard to dig up information on Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him of sexual assault, hours before the bombshell picture of them together was published in 2011.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said leaked emails suggesting Andrew passed Giuffre's date of birth and confidential US social security number to his close protection officer were "deeply concerning".

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police said: "We are aware of media reporting and are actively looking into the claims made." The developing scandal forced Andrew to relinquish some of his royal titles on Friday, including Duke of York, having already lost the use of his HRH title after ceasing to be a "working royal".

He retains the dukedom, which would take an act of parliament to remove, while his status as a prince could only be removed if a letters patent were issued by the king.

Andrew has vigorously denied any wrongdoing, and the FBI formally ended its investigation into his links to Epstein in July.

But MPs and campaigners have called for further action including a Metropolitan police investigation into Andrew's links to Epstein and an act of parliament to formally strip the prince of his titles.