Andrew to receive 'six-figure sum and stipend from king'

Payout to disgraced ex-prince 'several times £20,000 navy pension'

- Caroline Davies, Anna Isaac, Neha Gohil

The former Duke of York is in line for a significant six-figure sum and an annual stipend designed to prevent him overspending in his new life as a commoner, the Guardian understands.

As the king strives for a “once and for all” solution to the problem of his brother, one option for a relocation settlement includes an initial payment to cover his relocation from Royal Lodge in Windsor to private accommodation in Sandringham, Norfolk. This would come with an annuity, paid from Charles’s private funds, and thought to be several times his £20,000 annual navy pension, sources close to the talks said.

Now he is simply Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and stripped of his titles including prince and HRH. After Buckingham Palace’s statement on Thursday, it acted swiftly in beginning the process to remove any last outward vestiges of royalty, with his name already struck from the official roll of the peerage. Talks on the relocation package are believed to be continuing.

Keir Starmer is said to fully support the king's decision. A Downing Street spokesman added: "Our hearts go out to the family of Virginia Giuffre and all the victims who suffered from Jeffrey Epstein's despicable crimes."

The brother of Mountbatten Windsor's accuser, Virginia Giuffre, told the Guardian that the palace statement was a royal "acknowledgement that something occurred" between the disgraced duke and his sister, who took her own life this year.

Sky Roberts added: "I think that he's speaking very clearly in that statement when he says he's with survivors out there."

The government was consulted on the changes and is clear that it is constitutionally proper for the king to make this decision.