New poll reveals more than half of British public want Prince Andrew BANNED from royal events

Prince Andrew should stop going to public events attended by the whole royal family such as Trooping the Colour and Remembrance Sunday, according to a new poll.

More than half of the 1,677 people surveyed – 51 per cent – said the Duke of York should remove himself from royal gatherings including the Queen’s birthday. 

While just less then a third – 28 per cent – said he should continue being seen with the royal family at such events. And 21 per cent said they were unsure.

It comes after a catastrophic week for the Duke who has faced increased scrutiny over his relationship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein following a ‘car crash’ Newsnight interview last weekend. 

The poll found that just eight per cent thought he was telling the truth in the interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis (pictured), with more than half – 54 per cent – saying he wasn’t

The new YouGov poll, created for the Sunday Times, also revealed that most of those surveyed – 58 per cent – thought the interview had damaged the royal family. 

And found that just eight per cent thought he was telling the truth in the interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis, with more than half – 54 per cent – saying he wasn’t.

It also found that 45 per cent thought the allegations made by Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, that she was forced to have sex with Andrew were ‘probably true’.  

Prince Andrew has always denied any allegations of wrongdoing during his friendship with Epstein – and last weekend denied sleeping with Mrs Giuffre on three separate occasions. 

On Wednesday, Andrew issued a statement confirming he was ‘stepping down’ from public duties in the wake of a deepening crisis over his friendship with Epstein.

In the bombshell statement, the prince claimed that he would be ‘willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency’.

In the poll, 72 per cent thought Andrew should make himself available to legal authorities in the US to answer questions about Epstein. 

On Wednesday, Andrew issued a statement confirming he was ‘stepping down’ from public duties in the wake of a deepening crisis over his friendship with Epstein (he is pictured next to Boris Johnson at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London earlier this month)

The news comes as it was reported The Duke of Cambridge is ‘not a huge fan’ of Prince Andrew amid claims he ‘hoodwinked’ the Queen by not warning her he was about to discuss the scandal at length in a disastrous BBC interview. 

Andrew and the Queen had a ‘son-to-mother’ conversation, in which he let her know he was going to talk about his relationship with the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein but ‘without going into details’, a royal source said.

The Duke of Cambridge was unhappy with his uncle’s behaviour and decided his removal from public life was ‘the right thing to do’, a source told The Sunday Times. 

Another said he had spoken to the Queen and Prince Charles about Andrew’s future, adding: ‘William is becoming more and more involved in decisions about the institution [monarchy] and he’s not a huge fan of his uncle Andrew.’

Today, it emerged that the Duke of York’s former wife Sarah Ferguson and daughter Princess Beatrice were among the key figures pressing him to go ahead with last weekend’s much-criticised Newsnight interview. 

The Mail on Sunday understands that the Duchess of York had been keen to end the speculation about Andrew’s involvement with convicted paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein ahead of Beatrice’s wedding to property developer Edo Mapelli Mozzi next year.

Fergie is also believed to have been convinced that if the public could see the Duke – or ‘my boy’, as she is said to call him – talking in his own words about the scandal, they would be convinced that he was telling the truth.