UK PM Keir Starmer categorically said that "nobody is above law" hours before former Britain prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested by the police over alleged misconduct in public office, including "sending potentially confidential documents during his time as a UK trade envoy" to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer was responding to a BBC question on whether he believed Andrew should agree to speak with UK police voluntarily.
"I think that's a matter for the police. They will conduct their own investigations, but one of the core principles in our system is that everybody is equal under the law and nobody is above the law," he said.
"It's a very important principle of our country... and it has to apply in this case in the same way it would in any other case," he added.
He even said that MPs in the parliament were free to debate Andrew's links to sex offender Epstein.
The alleged incident is said to have taken place in 2010 at Royal Lodge, the former residence of Prince Andrew. The woman involved, who is not a British national, was in her twenties at the time, BBC reported.
According to her attorney, she claimed that after spending the night with Andrew, she was served tea and shown around Buckingham Palace.
Police arrested Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The development marks a significant turn in long-running scrutiny surrounding his past associations.
Thames Valley Police, which oversees areas west of London including his former residence, said it had been reviewing claims that he shared trade-related information with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2010.
Under UK law, police typically do not publicly identify suspects at the time of arrest. Authorities did not name Mountbatten-Windsor directly, but confirmed they had detained a man in his sixties when asked whether he had been taken into custody.
Last month, the US Department of Justice released millions of documents that offered further insight into Andrew’s ties with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The latest batch reportedly included photographs appearing to show him on all fours over a woman lying on the floor, while numerous other files referenced him repeatedly.
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