Bryant presses Davey on previous comments about Andrew’s trade rolepublished at 13:39 GMT
13:39 GMT
Bryant then addresses Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey, who introduced the motion to the Commons.
He mentions Davey’s comments during a parliamentary debate in 2011, where he said Andrew was doing an “excellent job” as trade envoy and dismissed concerns around him at the time as “innuendo”.
Speaking in the Commons, Bryant says: “I think if he had followed the debates in the public domain at the time, he would have known better than to have made those comments.”
Davey responds: “The minister knows that I apologise for that comment, taking the brief from someone else, I really wish I hadn’t said those words, because I’m thinking about the victims.”
Earlier on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Davey was similarly asked about his defence of Andrew during the 2011 debate.
During that interview, Davey said he regretted those comments and that “no MP mentioned Epstein in that debate and I think that tells a tale about how Parliament and MPs don’t hold the Royal Family, didn’t hold [the former] Prince Andrew in that really privileged position, properly to account”.