MI6 'WAS MONITORING'

Biographer of former prince says spies were interested in shady links | Author: Fergie should be quizzed & princesses should renounce titles

- REBECCA RUSSELL

MI6 spied on Andrew MountbattenWindsor and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson "because of shady people they were associating with", his biographer claims.

Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled, claims a source within the UK's foreign intelligence service revealed this to him.

Royal Family members cannot be the subject of MI6 files but their close associates can. Lownie said: "Andrew MountbattenWindsor and Sarah Ferguson were monitored because of their associates. MI6 stumbled across them watching others." When they were allegedly surveilled is not known. Lownie made the claim as he urged the Royal Family to speak publicly about links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein involving the late Queen's middle son.

It comes as multiple UK police forces are now assessing whether to launch investigations linked to Epstein's activities.

The King and Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke of Edinburgh have issued firm statements in recent weeks to draw the focus back to Epstein's victims, But Lownie believes it's not enough following recent developments concerning Andrew, who turns 66 today, and the former Duchess of York.

Lownie said: "[The Royal Family] need to come clean about what they knew, when they knew it, what they did about it and what they're going to do now.