For years now he has been saddled with his Airmiles Andy image because of his reputed love of helicopter rides to golf games and his refusal to travel on a train when flying 25 miles at exorbitant cost will do.

His aides have always insisted that he earns Britain millions of pounds in exports in his role as a UK trade ambassador. Their claims are probably true. But Andrew, 49, has so far proved strangely unwilling to publish a report he commissioned from accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers into whether he really does provide value for money.

At the same time, Andrew, who receives £249,000 a year from the Queen to undertake his royal duties and some years over £400,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses, has been running up costs to the public that are, frankly, scandalous.

He plays the game. On his foreign missions he likes to mix public and private engagements and holidays in a way that could be interpreted by some people as a breach of guidelines set out in a January 2005 National Audit Office report which said doing that was “actively discouraged”.

And as if his unnecessary use of expensive charter flights on...

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