00:00Right, we now come to the Opposition Day motion on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
00:05I believe we must help to bring about that cultural change now.
00:09We must build a culture of transparency and accountability.
00:13And I hope we as a House will look at ending the archaic negative privilege rules
00:18and the changes that we think are necessary would indeed protect the royal family.
00:24A deferential, frankly sycophantic treatment by Parliament and state authorities
00:29are being exposed as having enabled Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to behave as though he were untouchable.
00:36The proceedings are underway. It would be wrong of me to say anything that might prejudice them.
00:41The idea that the role of Special Trade Envoy for our United Kingdom may have been used to help him
00:46do that,
00:47to help a vile paedophile sex trafficker enrich himself, is truly sickening.
00:53Mr Speaker, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shamed our country and the royal family.
01:00But for too long, Members of Parliament were barred from even raising criticism of him,
01:06let alone properly scrutinising his role as Trade Envoy.
01:10Because of the outdated tradition, the mentions of any member of the royal family in this House must,
01:15in the words of the previous Speaker, be, and I quote,
01:18very rare, very sparing, and very respectful.
01:22In many ways, this is the first truly global scandal,
01:27from the White House in Silicon Valley to Oslo and Paris.
01:32But it's also a deeply British scandal, reaching right to the top of the British establishment.
01:38Because can there be many people more symbolic of the rot that eats away at the British establishment
01:44than the former Duke of York and Special Trade Envoy,
01:48and the former Business Secretary, First Secretary of State, and Ambassador to the United States?
01:54Their association with Epstein, and their actions on his behalf,
01:59while trusted with the privilege of public office, are a stain on our country.
02:04Today, we must begin to clean away that stain with the disinfectant of transparency.
02:10Because whether it is the President of the United States, and his Commerce Secretary,
02:15or Peter Mandelson, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, or Epstein himself,
02:20their victims and survivors have seen those responsible evade accountability and escape justice for far too long.
02:28I hope, I desperately hope, that is ending now, and I hope the House will approve this motion.
02:36Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker, let me be clear from the outset, we support this motion today.
02:42Frankly, it is the least we owe the victims of the horrific abuse that was perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein and
02:47others.
02:48The abuse that was enabled, aided, and abetted by a very extensive group of arrogant, entitled,
02:57and often very wealthy individuals in this country and elsewhere.
03:00It's not just the people who participated in the abuse,
03:04it's the many, many more who turned a blind eye out of greed, familiarity, or deference.
03:11To my mind, they too were complicit, just as complicit,
03:15and I welcome the reckoning that is coming to them now.
03:18I doubt there is anyone in this House who is not shocked and appalled by the recent allegations.
03:24Colleagues and many civil servants have told me their own stories of their interactions with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor,
03:30and they all betray the same pattern.
03:33A man on a constant self-aggrandising and self-enriching hustle.
03:38A rude, arrogant, and entitled man,
03:42who could not distinguish between the public interest which he said he served,
03:46and his own private interest.
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