New Zealand has become the second Commonwealth country to back the removal of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for New Zealand\u2019s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said on Tuesday: \u201cIf the UK government proposes to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the order of succession, New Zealand would support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luxon later told the media that his government had been in contact with the UK Cabinet Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is no one is above the law and once that investigation is closed, should the UK government decide to remove him from the line of succession, that is something we would support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He made the statement after Australia\u2019s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, confirmed<\/a> in a letter to his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, on Monday that he would support the former prince\u2019s removal from the line of succession.<\/p>\n Speaking to Nova Adelaide on Tuesday, Albanese said the allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor were \u201creally serious\u201d and he had experienced \u201cquite a fall from grace\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBut he still remains in the line of succession, and I think that Australians don\u2019t want a bar of this bloke, frankly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The former prince is eighth in line to the throne after Princes William and Harry and their children, despite him having relinquished his royal titles in October after new information came to light about his links to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and child sex offender.<\/p>\n This means Mountbatten-Windsor is still a counsellor of state, the group of adult royals who could be named to fill in for King Charles if he was ill or abroad. In practice this would never happen, as only working royals are used.<\/p>\n