Blairite fixer and former Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer has played down the prospect of a wide inquiry into Epstein’s links to Andrew. He told the Today Programme this morning in response to Tom Tugendhat’s suggestion that royal aides should be questioned by parliament:
“Well, I think there there has to be some sort of inquiry at some time, but the sorts of things that Tom was rightly referring to was Andrew Mountbatten Windsor making personal gain – and none of this is proved or it’s all being investigated and the sex trafficking allegations again are not proved. The police are either investigating some of those or will be investigating some of those. We need to let that take place first. There is a separate question about the question of how the royal family should be as it were held to account because they are not – and probably rightly – not accountable to Parliament.
They are separate in that respect and that is a decision made partly in order to preserve the mystique of the royal family but also they can’t defend themselves. So, if you read Erskine May, the reason you’re not allowed to say unpleasant things about the royal family is because they’re not in politics. They can’t defend themselves.
The institution is undermined if people can say things about them. But what Tom is saying carries with it weight because so many people in the public are now concerned to know how did this happen? If they’re not to be held fully accountable to Parliament, who can hold them to account or or do we just have to say that is the price we pay for the nature of that constitutional arrangement?”
There are calls for a wide-ranging inquiry into Epstein’s access to the British state through his confidants Peter Mandelson and Andrew. Not a proposal of which Falconer is a fan…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”