The unconfirmed source of the payment has led to considerable speculation throughout Britain and the rest of the world. Now, a Labour MP intends to seek assurances in the House of Commons that taxpayer money is not being used by the disgraced royal to give to Ms Guiffre.
Andy McDonald, the MP for Middlesbrough, said he would raise the issue when MPs return to Westminster next week following recess.
He said: “This is a person of very high profile involved in a case where his position of authority and privilege has been allegedly abused and it is an enormous sum of money.
“We don’t know the precise figure but there is a risk that this will be at the public’s expense so we need to have that resolved.
“We need to know exactly where this money is coming from.
“I am going to take the opportunity to raise this issue in Parliament because the issue isn’t going to go away until people have that information and receive assurances that public money is not going to be used to in any way contribute to the settlement.”
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How rich is the Royal Family?
Estimating the overall wealth of the Royal Family is tricky, and the last evaluation of their wealth was done in 2017.
The Royal Family was valued at £67.5 billion by Brand Finance.
The monarchy’s tangible assets – which include the Crown Estate, the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, and the Royal Collection, including the Crown Jewels – accounted for £25.5 billion of that total in 2017.
The Queen has an estimated personal fortune of £380 million, according to Forbes.
The source of the Duke’s personal wealth has long remained a mystery – he has a modest Navy pension and previously received an annual £250,000 stipend from the Queen when he was still undertaking royal duties.
This had led to considerable speculation that the funds could be coming from the family itself – and is made more controversial given that Buckingham Palace said the duke would go into his legal battle as a “private citizen”.
It is known the Queen funded some of his legal fees up until now – but whether the monarch will foot Ms Guiffre’s bill has not been announced.
Royal expert Adam Helliker claims the Queen had to cover the cost because Andrew “doesn’t have any income”.
Mr Helliker said: “No one has that kind of money but his mother.
“Andrew is not close enough to the Prince of Wales for him to fund that kind of money. He doesn’t have any income.”
