Public supports King's move to strip Andrew's titles, YouGov poll shows
Buckingham Palace announced this week that Andrew is being forced out of the Royal Lodge.
Friday 31 October 2025 20:46, UK
The public supports the King's decision to strip Andrew of his titles and remove him from the Royal Lodge, according to a new YouGov poll.
Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday that he would no longer be a prince, instead known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
A notice was also served for Andrew to surrender his lease at the Royal Lodge.
It followed mounting criticism over his former friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, which intensified after a string of recent, damaging leaks.
Andrew latest: Andrew should be investigated, Virginia Giuffre's brother tells Paste BN
Andrew had been accused of sexual assault by Virginia Giuffre, who died in April. Andrew has always vehemently denied the accusations.
A YouGov poll on Friday shows the public supports the King's decision.
Of the 4,739 people surveyed, 79% of them answered "the right decision" to the question: "Do you think the King has made the right or wrong decision to strip Andrew Mountbatten Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew) of his prince title?"
Six per cent said "the wrong decision" and the rest, 15%, answered "don't know".
The group was also asked: "Do you think the royal family have dealt with revelations about Andrew's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein too quickly, too slowly, or at about the right speed?"
Fifty-eight per cent answered "too slowly", 21% said "about the right speed", 17% said "don't know" and 3% said "too quickly".
Finally, the group was asked: "Which of the following comes closest to your view on the King's response to revelations about Andrew's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?"
Recent developments come as no surprise
There is no doubt the palace will be heartened to read the general consensus is that this time, over Andrew, they have done the right thing.
As the King has been spotted retreating to Sandringham, it cannot be understated how tumultuous the past couple of weeks have been for the family.
As the story around Andrew, his titles and where he lived, continued to make the front pages for almost two weeks, the conversations would not have been 'do we need to do more, but how and when'.
The palace also want us to know that they realised Andrew just giving up the use of his titles was not going to be satisfactory, but a longer-term resolution was going to take time.
On Thursday night, we saw the results of those efforts to resolve this once and for all.
The fact they decided to announce this further development this week should come as no surprise.
Prince William heads to Brazil on Monday for one of the biggest weeks of his year, for the Earthshot Awards and the COP UN climate conference.
Over the next couple of weeks, family members will be heavily involved in Remembrance Events. The issue over Andrew had to stop.
While his brother's serious lapse of judgement has led to the King taking the ultimate action, there is a genuine concern within the family about the impact on his two daughters, Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.
They will continue to be at the forefront of the family's minds. The Metropolitan Police is looking into reports that Andrew asked an officer to help with an attempted smear campaign against Giuffre. There have also been calls by Congress in the US for Andrew to tell them more about Epstein.
It is interesting that those asked in polling do think the King dealt with the Andrew-Epstein revelations too slowly.
And once again, there is not much the family can do to stop those issues around Epstein continuing to be the distraction they have wanted to shut down.
Fifty-three per cent agreed with the answer: "The King has realistically done all he can to separate the royal family from Andrew."
Twenty-eight per cent agreed with the answer: "The King could do more to separate the royal family from Andrew."
Nineteen per cent agreed with the answer: "Don't know."