Pizza Express held inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s Woking claim

One of the routes we tried was submitting a freedom of information request to the Metropolitan Police, asking if any royal protection officers accompanied the former prince to the Woking branch 25 years ago.

In response, the force said it could “neither confirm nor deny” whether it holds this information, citing “national security” among other reasons.

“Confirming or denying that information is held would reveal whether protection had been afforded to a specific individual other than the King and the prime minister,” the Met said in reply to us.

This is despite Scotland Yard previously referring to Mountbatten-Windsor’s close protection officers, including in a press statement issued in February.

The Met’s response has drawn criticism from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.

“Of course the police are rightly very careful about giving any information about who they give special protection too,” he told the BBC.

“I completely understand that and it’s right. But too often we see these types of ‘neither confirm nor deny’ answers where there really isn’t a legitimate security reason – and I think that’s what’s happening here.”

He called for an “exception” to be made by the force to reveal the information.

“I really can’t see how revealing that Andrew had police protection 25 years ago would play into the hands of terrorists as the Met claims,” he added.

Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025 aged 41.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s military titles and royal patronages were removed by the late Queen in 2022 and he was stripped of his “prince” title last year. He also left his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge, amid pressure on the Royal Family over his links to paedophile financier Epstein.

He has consistently and strenuously denied any wrongdoing.