What was the trade envoy job that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor held?

The Duke of York, as he was then known, became the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment in October 2001. The role was described by UK Trade & Investment as an “extensive programme of targeted engagements both in the UK and overseas to promote the interest of UK industry and the UK as a whole”.

In essence, the role involved high-level lobbying, as well as the handling of sensitive “confidential briefs” regarding investment opportunities. It required close coordination with the UK’s trade and diplomatic missions abroad.

Who appointed him?

He started the role during Tony Blair’s government, after retiring from the navy in July 2001. In 2011, No 10, then under the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, said the appointment was made “with the agreement of the then foreign secretary [Jack Straw] and the trade and industry secretary [Patricia Hewitt]”.

So he was backed by Labour?

Not just Labour, no. When Mountbatten-Windsor was facing calls to step down from the role in 2011, endorsements still arrived from Conservative ministers. George Osborne, the then chancellor, said: “We have confidence in him doing the job and we think he’s done a good job in recent years. He’s promoted British exports. What we want is everyone promoting British exports at the minute and Prince Andrew has done that.”

Later, the former trade minister Digby Jones joined in, stating that Mountbatten-Windsor had “put the country first”.

“It’s important we, as business, say, let’s use what he can do to actually create some profit, employ some people, pay some tax,” the peer added.

Was Mountbatten-Windsor a controversial choice when he was first appointed?

He was. Even at the start of the new millennium, there were strong views held by supporters and opponents of a man who had a reputation for acting as a “playboy prince”.

In his book Entitled, the author Andrew Lownie outlines how the former trade secretary Peter Mandelson assisted Mountbatten-Windsor in landing the role of the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment – while his brother, the then Prince Charles, tried to scupper it.

“It was also claimed that Prince Charles was trying to block Andrew’s new role as ‘a disaster waiting to happen’ on the grounds that his brother simply couldn’t be trusted not to disgrace himself,” Lownie wrote. “A palace source said that the Prince of Wales was extremely concerned about Andrew’s playboy image: ‘He thinks he won’t be able to resist the temptation of mixing business with pleasure. This is a high-profile appointment which demands tact and discretion.’”

Whom did he meet in the role and why?

The post involved meetings with a series of UK and international business people, as well as foreign leaders, where he would essentially facilitate introductions. These could be mundane and, according to those involved, useful, but dealings with allegedly corrupt regimes, including Kazakhstan, caused awkward publicity. This was particularly true when it emerged that the Kazakh president’s son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, had bought Mountbatten-Windsor’s former house at Sunninghill Park in 2007, allegedly for £3m over the asking price.

The Kazakh ties persisted, however. In 2010 Mountbatten-Windsor met the UK’s BG Group on three occasions in the five weeks between 25 March and 28 April, including a rendezvous in Kazakhstan.

In March 2011, his links to Saif Gadaffi, the son of the then Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, led to calls for him to be stripped of the role.

Did Mountbatten-Windsor get paid for the job?

No. There was no salary for the post. However, expenses and travel costs were paid, which one MP suggested in 2011 “has cost the taxpayer about £4m in the last 10 years, not including the costs to protection officers”.

It seems as if the job description could benefit the UK, though?

It could, and the UK still has a variety of figures acting as trade envoys. There are a series of parliamentarians who fill region-specific roles. While many of these posts are a lot less high-profile, the former cricketer Ian Botham was appointed a UK trade ambassador to Australia in 2021.