RICHARD EDEN: Why royal insiders fear King Charles is forcing ‘loyal’ Prince Andrew to ‘do a Harry and Meghan’

As worshippers remembered Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in their roll-calls of the faithful departed during All Souls services across Britain last week, it was hard not to think how upset our late monarch would have been at the latest outbreak of hostilities between her two elder sons.

For the previous day, it had been disclosed by the Daily Mail – in its serialisation of my esteemed colleague Robert Hardman’s updated biography of Charles III – that the King had cut off Prince Andrew financially, marking a new low in relations between the brothers.

In Charles III: New King. New Court, Hardman reveals that the King told Sir Michael Stevens, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, to sever his beleaguered brother’s annual personal allowance – believed to be £1 million a year. He has also stopped paying the seven-figure sum for the Duke of York’s private security detail. ‘The Duke is no longer a financial burden on the King,’ a source confirmed.

Charles has now withdrawn financial support from his younger brother Andrew

I can disclose that the move by the King, who has long made it clear he wants his brother to move out of Royal Lodge, has shocked friends of Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, also resident at the 30-room mansion in Windsor Great Park.

‘Why is the King doing this?’ demanded one associate I spoke to. ‘And why now? It makes no sense. The King hardly needs to save money.’

Indeed, the King was handed more than £27 million from the Duchy of Lancaster last year to spend as he pleases without public scrutiny. That huge sum is in addition to the £86.3 million he will receive this year from the Sovereign Grant, which pays for the Royal Family’s running costs.

The decision to strip Andrew of financial support once again draws attention to the King’s finances, which are already being scrutinised heavily under the Labour Government, which is currently legislating to remove hereditary peers from the Lords.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, minister for the constitution, declared: ‘The hereditary principle in law-making has lasted for too long and is out of step with modern Britain.’

And the King, surely, cannot rest easy under Sir Keir Starmer, who once called for the abolition of the monarchy. The Prime Minister has since described that as a youthful indiscretion.

However, the recent publication of stories such as one disclosing how the Duchy of Lancaster, on behalf of the King, charged the NHS more than £11 million over 15 years for the right to park ambulances in one of its warehouses, are likely to increase nervousness among monarchists.

But instead of sticking together, the King is attacking his 64-year-old brother Andrew, who served bravely as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands War and worked as UK trade envoy.

‘Whatever you think of Andrew or his former wife, they have always been loyal to the Crown,’ one of their friends insists. ‘It’s quite remarkable how Sarah has managed to pursue a successful career in public life, and has given countless interviews, yet has never said anything damaging about the Royal Family.’

The friend is too discreet to spell it out, but Andrew and Fergie’s loyalty stands in contrast to the disloyalty of another duke, the Duke of Sussex, who, with his wife, has made a fortune out of attacking the Royal Family via Harry’s tawdry memoir, Spare, and their Netflix ‘docu-series’ Harry & Meghan.

Is it wise of the King to force his brother to seek his own fortune in order to pay the costs of maintaining and running Royal Lodge, which are estimated to be as much as £1 million per year?

Royal Lodge has been the Yorks’ family home since they paid £1 million for a 75-year lease in 2003. They spent more than £7.5 million on extensive renovation work to the Queen Mother’s former sprawling Grade II-listed mansion.

Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, seen here at Ascot, still both live at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park

There have been suggestions that Royal Lodge could be let to a private tenant instead. However, a National Audit Office report in 2005 made clear that this could not happen ‘because of the sensitive location of the property in the centre of the Windsor Great Park with its consequential management considerations, and because of security concerns surrounding the Royal Family’s access to the Royal Chapel’.

The Crown Estate’s view at the time was that it remained appropriate that the property should remain in Royal Family occupancy. According to my sources, that position hasn’t changed.

At the weekend, it was reported that Andrew had raised the funds to be allowed to stay at Royal Lodge as his money had been approved as coming from legitimate sources by the Keeper of the Privy Purse.

The King should call off the dogs and reassure Andrew that he won’t be booted out of his family home if his sources of income dry up. Otherwise, his brother might be forced to follow the example of Charles’s disloyal younger son and make millions from spilling royal secrets.

And no one would want that.