The Queen will not strip Prince Andrew of further titles despite growing calls to remove his Duke of York association.
The 96 year old monarch will stand by her son and not bow to growing pressure to calls to pursue “a number of paths” in parliament, including amending legislation, to strip the royal of his last major honorary position.
Royal sources have said the Queen “certainly will not” force her son to give up his Duke title - a lifelong title given to him by the Queen in 1986.
Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, previously announced how she had met Commons officials to investigate ways of forcing Prince Andrew to give up his Duke of York title.
The move gathered pace in February after the royal’s £12million out-of-court settlement Virginia Giuffre, the woman who sensationally accused the royal of sexually assaulting her when she was 17 in 2001.
Prince Andrew has denied all allegations made against him related to the Virginia Giuffre case.
The Duke of York, 62, last night dealt another hammer blow to his already battered reputation when he was stripped of his ‘Freedom of the city of York’ honorary position, given to him in 1987.
Councillors voted overwhelmingly to dump the disgraced Duke and “erase his stain of an association with the city”.
York city representatives announced further calls for Her Majesty to step in and remove her disgraced son’s Duke title and even tell him to stop using the title Prince, bestowed to him at birth.
However, the Queen alone cannot remove titles of peerage.
Any attempt to remove the title would have to be led by parliament, with a statute passed by both the House of Commons and the Lords.
But Palace insiders remarked how Her Majesty “believes the matter to be settled”.
The Mirror previously revealed how the Queen stepped in to bail Andrew out, contributing £2million from her personal coffers to go towards a donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity set up to help victims of sexual abuse.
A source said: “The Queen certainly will not take any further action in that regard (of removing his titles).
“The Duke of York has stepped back from public life and already had a range of titles and associations removed and Her Majesty’s position has not deviated from that.”
Andrew was forced to step back permanently from royal duties and stripped of his HRH title, military and royal patronages earlier this year.
In January, as a US judge told him he would face a full civil trial on allegations of sexual assault against Ms Giuffre before he settled the case, Buckingham Palace released a bombshell statement stating: “With The Queen's approval and agreement, The Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to The Queen.
The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”
Councillors in Northern Ireland are also set to hold a debate later this year on the renaming of Prince Andrew Way, a street in Carrickfergus, which is in the Mid and East Antrim Council area.
Ms Maskell said: “The next step is very much having a parliamentary petition to gauge broad public opinion and also to look at the legislation.
“I’ve already spoken to the clerks about what those options are.
“Of course, as a backbencher we all know it’s difficult to bring forward legislation, so I will be looking for opportunities in other legislation that government brings forward to see if it could be amended to address this.”
