Buckingham Palace was handed 30,000 emails on Andrew's envoy dealings in 2020, court papers show

Buckingham Palace was handed an archive of about 30,000 emails six years ago that would have shown Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor sharing confidential government information while serving as a UK trade envoy, according to court documents. A High Court judgment from April 2021 records that a "copy of the archive" was provided for the Lord Chamberlain -- the most senior officer in the Royal Household -- in May 2020, and a June 2022 ruling cites an email dated 10 July 2020 stating the emails had been "delivered to Buckingham Palace." The handover came after the former Duke of York stepped down as a working royal following his November 2019 BBC Newsnight interview.

Asked what happened to the emails, the Palace said: "Since there is an ongoing police enquiry concerning Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, it is not possible to provide any comment on these matters." Thames Valley Police issued a fresh appeal for information last week after arresting him on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

The archive, with emails running to June 2013, has not been fully disclosed, but the Telegraph published messages this year showing Mountbatten-Windsor requested a confidential Treasury briefing in 2010 -- on problems in Iceland's banking industry -- and passed it to a personal business contact "before you make your move." The recipient was Jonathan Rowland, whose father, David Rowland, had taken over the Luxembourg arm of the failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing, which became Banque Havilland, later sanctioned by regulators in the UK and EU. Jonathan Rowland confirmed to the BBC that the messages were taken from his account.

The emails were lifted from Rowland's account after a business dispute and obtained by Kevin Stanford, the retail entrepreneur and former majority owner of All Saints, who was in a separate dispute over investments in Kaupthing. Court documents say Stanford offered the archive to authorities in Monaco and Luxembourg and shared it with several people, including the Lord Chamberlain, a post then held by Lord Peel. The emails reached the Palace during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II; under King Charles, who has since stripped Andrew of his titles, the King said after the arrest that "the law must take its course." Mountbatten-Windsor has rejected any wrongdoing in his associations with Jeffrey Epstein and denied any personal gain from the trade-envoy role.

The disclosure follows the release of the Epstein Files in the US this year, which showed his closeness to the Rowlands -- promoting their ventures and vouching for David Rowland as his "trusted money man" -- and recorded ex-wife Sarah Ferguson receiving a "Rowland bank loan." On Saturday, York Central MP Rachael Maskell called for a public inquiry, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "the system built around the Royal Household has to be reviewed" and proposing a joint committee of the Lords and Commons. "The web grows ever darker and that is why we have got to address the issue of unaccountable power and also the abuse of power in high office," she said. Ailsa Anderson, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, called the emails "absolutely horrendous" and "another nail in the coffin" while noting the Royal Household had acted promptly. Author Andrew Lownie pressed for a parliamentary inquiry into Andrew's time as envoy, saying Freedom of Information requests -- including on a 2011 trip to Azerbaijan -- continue to be refused and "the cover-up continues."

Asked whether it now has access to the 30,000 emails, Thames Valley Police said it was "aware of the allegations circulating in the public domain" and urged anyone with relevant information to come forward. A government spokesperson said it was "fully cooperating" with the force and had last week published documents on the creation of the envoy role and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's appointment in 2001.