Pressure on prince grows as BT distances itself from him and letter to the Times emerges

A claim by Prince Andrew during his controversial BBC interview to have first met the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 1999 has been thrown into doubt after it emerged that the duke’s previous chief of staff said the two men met in “the early 1990s”.

The claim was made by Alastair Watson, the prince’s private secretary for nine years until 2012, who wrote a letter to the Times in 2011 in order to reject reports that the Duke was a friend of Saif Gaddafi, son of the former Libyan dictator.

Addressing reports at the time about the prince’s relationship with Epstein, Watson said the two men were introduced in the early 1990s and that “insinuations and innuendos” about Andrew were without foundation.

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Buckingham Palace pushed back at suggestions of an apparent discrepancy in the account given by the prince in his BBC interview last weekend, when he said he had met Epstein through the US financier’s girlfriend in 1999.

“The duke’s words in the interview speak for themselves,” said a spokesperson.

The development came as BT has said it will not work with a digital training scheme that counts Prince Andrew as patron, amid a growing exodus after the duke’s unrepentant interview about his friendship with Epstein and pressure from a woman who says the convicted child sex offender trafficked her to London to meet the royal and have sex with him.

The telecoms firm said it was reviewing its ties with the Duke of York Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA), an independent digital skills scheme with whom it is partnered, in light of its relationship with Andrew.

“We have been working with the company since its launch in 2017 and our dealings have been with its executive directors, not its patron, the Duke of York,” a BT spokesperson said. “As a leading provider of online digital skills training, iDEA was a natural partner for our new Skills for Tomorrow programme.

“However, in light of recent developments we are reviewing our relationship with the organisation and hope that we might be able to work further with them, in the event of a change in their patronage.”

In an apparent attempt to limit damage, a page on the iDea website listing Salesforce, Google, BT and Microsoft as “corporate partners” has been deleted. Microsoft said it had supported the prince’s entrepreneurial scheme, Pitch@Palace, some years ago but had no ongoing involvement.

Pitch@Palace has also removed its webpage listing corporate supporters, and the educational charity Outward Bound Trust, which has a long association with the royal family, will consider his role as patron at a board meeting this week.

Amid an unravelling of corporate support for the enterprise, at least one major company that has been involved with it is hoping that Andrew could step aside for another royal such as Prince Harry or Prince William.

On Tuesday, Andrew was due to visit emergency workers and evacuated residents in Stainforth and Fishlake, near Doncaster, during a tour with the army. But the trip to flood-hit South Yorkshire was cancelled.

The duke had been due to offer his “support and thanks” to the emergency services but with an election campaign and a politician also visiting, it was not felt appropriate for the visit to continue due to purdah rules, Buckingham Palace confirmed.

Meanwhile, two Australian universities publicly severed ties with Pitch@Palace on Tuesday after the banking services company Standard Chartered withdrew its support for the scheme – which claims to have generated more than 6,000 jobs – citing “commercial reasons”.

On Monday, it emerged that KPMG, a founding partner of the initiative, would not be renewing its sponsorship, which ended on 31 October.

Timeline Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew Show Hide

In the early 90s, Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, met investment banker and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Their relationship was initially romantic, but it evolved into something more akin to that of Maxwell being a close friend, confidante and personal assistant. The Duke of York, Prince Andrew, was reportedly introduced to Epstein through their mutual friend Maxwell in 1999, and Epstein reportedly visited the Queen’s private retreat in Aberdeenshire. Some have suggested the introduction was made earlier. A 2011 letter to the Times of London from the prince’s then private secretary, Alastair Watson, suggests Andrew and Epstein knew each other from the early 90s. Andrew, Maxwell and Epstein are seen together at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Later that year, Epstein and Maxwell attend a joint birthday party at Windsor Castle hosted by the Queen. Andrew and Epstein holiday together and are pictured on a yacht in Phuket, Thailand, surrounded by topless women. The Times of London reported the prince’s holiday was paid for by Epstein. In the same year, Virginia Giuffre, then 17, claims to have had sex with Andrew in Maxwell’s home in Belgravia, London. Giuffre, whose surname was Roberts at the time of the alleged incidents, says she slept with Andrew twice more, at Epstein’s New York home and at an “orgy” on his private island in the Caribbean. Epstein is jailed for 18 months by a Florida state court after pleading guilty to prostituting minors. Soon after his release, Epstein is visited by Andrew in New York. The pair are photographed together in Central Park. Footage emerges years later, reportedly shot on 6 December, that appears to show Andrew inside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion waving goodbye to a woman from behind a door. Andrew quits his role as UK trade envoy following a furore over the Central Park photos. Allegations that Andrew had sex with Giuffre emerge in court documents in Florida related to Epstein. The papers say she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, which is under the age of consent under Florida law. Buckingham Palace denies the allegations. The claims against Andrew are later struck from US civil court records following a federal judge’s ruling. Andrew is accused of sexual impropriety by a second alleged Epstein victim, Johanna Sjoberg. She claims he touched her breast at the billionaire’s Manhattan apartment in 2001. Buckingham Palace says the allegations are 'categorically untrue'. Epstein is found dead in his jail cell after being re-arrested and charged with sex trafficking. A medical examiner says the death was a suicide. A pilot on Epstein’s private jet later that month claims Andrew was a passenger on past flights with the financier and Giuffre. Andrew takes part in a disastrous BBC TV interview during which he claims he could not have had sex with Giuffre because he was at home after a visit to Pizza Express in Woking, and that her description of his dancing with her beforehand could not be true because he was unable to sweat, and that he had "no recollection of ever meeting this lady". After several days of negative reaction, Andrew announces he is to step back from public duties 'for the foreseeable future'. US prosecutor Geoffrey Berman gives a public statement suggesting there has been 'zero cooperation' with the investigation from Andrew. After Berman again claims the prince has 'completely shut the door' on cooperating with the US investigation in March, lawyers for Andrew insist he has repeatedly offered to cooperate and accuse US prosecutors of misleading the public and breaching confidentiality. Maxwell, who has seldom been seen in public in recent years, is arrested by the FBI on charges related to Epstein. Unsealed testimony from a 2015 civil case reveal a series of claims about her role in Epstein sex-trafficking ring, including allegations that she trained underage girls as sex slaves.

Andrew, who has failed to express regret over his friendship with Epstein, is facing mounting scrutiny amid allegations he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, then Roberts, who had allegedly been coerced by the financier when she was 17 and with whom the prince has been pictured. He has strenuously denied her claims.

Barclays recently renewed its sponsorship of Pitch@Palace, but is understood to be monitoring the situation, while AstraZeneca’s three-year partnership with the initiative is due to expire at the end of this year and is being reviewed.

The English National Ballet said its patronage was being discussed by trustees, following reports that senior figures within the institution were lobbying for Andrew to be ousted as a patron.

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Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia said it had concluded its involvement with Pitch@Palace in October and was committed to ensuring its campus remains “a safe and inclusive place to work and study”.

Bond University was preparing to consider working again with Pitch@Palace in 2020, but “in light of recent events, the university does not intend to seek any further involvement”. Murdoch University in Perth was “reviewing its support of the PitchPalace event in 2020”.

London Metropolitan University will review the prince’s role as patron at a board of governors’ meeting next week, and a student panel at Huddersfield University has passed a motion to lobby the duke to resign as their chancellor.