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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is calling for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to be removed from the royal line of succession for his “deplorable” actions, weeks after being arrested over suspicion of misconduct in public office in connection with the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Carney said the former prince’s actions that caused Mountbatten-Windsor to be stripped of his royal titles in October “necessitate” his removal from the line of succession, speaking to reporters in Tokyo.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also weighed in on the arrest, warning that “nobody is above the law” and that the principle was “very important” and “has to apply in this case in the same way it would in any other case.”
Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, is the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested after more details about his relationship with Epstein were found in millions of files the U.S. Justice Department released in recent months, which have sparked an investigation in Paris and uproar in Great Britain.
The king expressed his “deepest concern” over his brother’s arrest, but stated that “the law must take its course.”
Police previously confirmed they were investigating allegations that King Charles III’s younger brother shared confidential trade documents with Epstein while serving as the U.S. trade envoy, a title he held from 2001-2011.
In a 2010 email sent to Epstein shortly after he was released from an 18-month stint in jail, the former prince said he hoped to “catch up” with the New York financier. Epstein had been convicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution. The emails were revealed last year.
Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, said that even though Mountbatten-Windsor is “well down” the line of succession, the “point of principle stands,” noting there is a process to remove someone from the line of succession that should be followed.
The former Prince Andrew, King Charles III’s younger brother, remains eighth in line to become monarch. King Charles III is the head of state in Canada, a member of the Commonwealth of the former colonies.
Under the current line of royal succession, Charles’s son, Prince William, is heir to the throne, and his three children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis — are next.
The charges Mountbatten-Windsor faces carry the possibility of a lifetime sentence.