Mystery over Prince Andrew’s ‘secret palace’ in the UAE

Prince Andrew has a fully-staffed royal palace gifted to him in the Gulf – but he thinks it is too quiet and his ex-wife doesn’t like the heat, it has been claimed.

The shamed royal and Sarah Ferguson are said to have a grand mansion available on demand in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

It was a gift to them from the UAE’s ruling royal family – the house of Nahyan, according to esteemed biographer and historian Andrew Lownie and other sources.

Prince William and his wife the Princess of Wales are said to be desperate to kick Andrew and Fergie out of their Windsor Great Lodge and hope the former couple will emigrate.

It came after yet another shocking twist in the royal-Epstein scandal when it emerged last night Andrew hasn’t paid rent for 22 years on his palatial 30-room home with 98 acres of land.

But despite the crumbling House of York having access to a palace in Abu Dhabi, fully staffed with servants and close to the warm waters of the Persian Gulf, Andrew and Fergie are not said to be keen to relocate.

Ms Ferguson, who can no longer use her title the Duchess of York, is said to struggle with the heat.

And Andrew reportedly considers the UAE too quiet and he prefers the busier social scene in the UK.

Andrew should be kicked out of his Windsor Royal Lodge and disappear because the British public are ‘sick’ of him and he is an embarrassment to his family and the UK, Robert Jenrick has claimed.

The shadow justice secretary has said it is disgusting that taxpayers are subsiding him to live in a 30-room mansion with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson when he should be paying £200,000 a year.

‘I don’t see why the taxpayer frankly should continue to foot the bill.  The public are sick of Prince Andrew’, he said.

And Andrew could become the first royal to be caught up in a criminal probe in more than 20 years. Scotland Yard has confirmed it is ‘actively’ probing claims he asked an officer to dig up dirt on Virginia Giuffre, whose posthumous autobiography is out today.

Mr Jenrick said: ‘I don’t think the taxpayer should in any way be footing the bill for him to live in luxury homes ever again. He shouldn’t have any taxpayer subsidies going forward.

‘It’s about time Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private and make his own way in life. He has disgraced himself, he has embarrassed the Royal Family time and again. 

‘The King deserves great respect and admiration for the way he has handled this. He is trying to do his absolute best to ensure Prince Andrew goes off, leads a quiet life and doesn’t embarrass himself, the royal family or our country ever again’.

An unredacted copy of his lease emerged last night.

It shows that while he paid £1million to lease the property in 2003 and spent £7.5million on refurbishments, he has paid only ‘one peppercorn (if demanded)’ of rent a year since taking on the mansion 22 years ago.

This is because Andrew is deemed to have paid the rent – which was in the region of £260,000 a year – up front through the work he has funded to bring the palatial property up to scratch. 

It also means the Crown Estate will have to pay him around half a million pounds if he were to quit his mansion before the lease on it runs out in 2078.

A copy of the agreement was obtained by The Times newspaper following pressure from MPs and campaigners. And it will no doubt add to public outrage over Andrew’s perceived ‘perks’. 

Sources have stressed to the Daily Mail, however, that questions still remain over how the King’s brother can afford the vast 30-bedroom property, which comes with multi-million running costs.

The Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that Andrew is not believed to have received any significant inheritance from the Queen or Queen Mother, raising fresh questions about how he can afford to stay in the property – particularly when he now receives no personal allowance from the King, or public funding.

Charles, 76, has desperately tried to persuade his younger brother to downsize and move out of the grade II-listed mansion in recent years. 

He believes many of Andrew’s problems – particularly those that saw him drawn to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and other shady characters – stem from chasing a lifestyle he simply cannot afford.

But Andrew, 65, has stubbornly insisted that he has a cast-iron lease on the house. And as long as he pays the rent, the King has no legal right to throw him out.

Beatrice and her sister Eugenie are said to have pulled out of a charity ball in London on Saturday amid the torrent of unedifying claims around their father.

While details of the Queen’s will have never been made public, it is thought that Andrew was not left sufficient funds to sustain his apparently lavish lifestyle.

Royal Lodge, in the heart of Windsor Great Park, was the home of the Queen Mother, and was leased to Andrew after her death. 

The Crown Estate approved the arrangement, saying its location and ‘security concerns’ made it difficult to rent out on the open market. 

Andrew had to carry out £7.5million of refurbishment work when he took the property on in 2003. He was given a 75-year lease in return for a one-off payment of £1million.

His rent was believed to be upwards of £260,000 a year, with a legal requirement to keep the property in a good state of repair.

However, sources at Windsor say the house is a virtual ‘money pit’ and there have long been claims Andrew has been struggling with its upkeep. 

Until now it had been widely assumed that without any public funding or private allowance from his brother, the prince had been dipping into personal investments and family bequests to bankroll the property.

The revelation over his inheritance will inevitably raise questions about how he can afford to live there. Andrew also has to fund his own security after losing his official police bodyguard. 

The King had previously said that if his brother downsized and moved to a smaller property on the estate – potentially Frogmore Cottage, recently vacated by Harry – he would reinstate his personal allowance and help fund his security.

But after Andrew point-blank refused, it is not known whether the offer is still even on the table.

The headlines have been an unfortunate distraction for the King, who yesterday made a moving visit to Manchester to visit the Heaton Park synagogue that was targeted in a terror attack earlier this month.