The City of London Corporation has formally censured Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after he failed to respond to a request to voluntarily relinquish his Freedom of the City of London.
The Court of Common Council, the Corporation's highest decision-making body, passed a motion of censure and instructed officers to pursue steps to lawfully remove the Freedom following Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's silence in response to a letter from senior officers sent in April.
The Corporation's legal advice confirmed that, because the Freedom was inherited through patrimony rather than granted as an honour, it constitutes a property right protected under both domestic law and the European Convention on Human Rights – meaning the council cannot simply remove it.
The motion records the Court's view that Mountbatten-Windsor's association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is ‘wholly unacceptable and inconsistent’ with the status of a Freeman, and expresses solidarity with Epstein's victims and survivors.
The Corporation said officers would now pursue whatever lawful steps are available.
