IF the government does not “feel comfortable” in removing Andrew Windsor’s duke of York title, it should allow the SNP to do so, the party’s Westminster leader said today.

Stephen Flynn made the remarks amid the ongoing fallout over Mr Windsor’s relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein before and after his conviction for procuring under-18s for prostitution.

Mr Windsor had faced accusations of abuse from one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, which he continues to deny.

Ms Giuffre took her own life in April, but ahead of the publication of her memoirs detailing the catalogue of abuse she endured, Mr Windsor issued a statement last week announcing he would put his duke of York title into abeyance and refrain from using it.

Still styled a prince, he continues to hold the title living on in a 30-room crown estate mansion on a peppercorn rent he is reported not to have paid in decades.

While the status of that lease is now the subject of an inquiry by Parliament’s public accounts committee, the SNP is pushing for an opposition day debate on stripping Mr Windsor of his title and launching a probe into his finances and living arrangements.

But a No 10 spokesman said the royal family “would not want to take time from other important issues,” with the government refusing to allocate parliamentary time to discuss the situation.

In letter to the Prime Minister stating that he was “deeply concerned” that the government’s response appeared “solely guided by the royal family,” Mr Flynn said: “It should be a statement of the obvious that democracy and justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein should be the sole guide to our response.

“That is why it is critically important that action against Prince Andrew is now swiftly taken.

“If the Labour Party don’t feel able or don’t feel comfortable in acting against Prince Andrew, the SNP will.

“If the government supplies the SNP with an opposition day, we will bring forward a motion which would give MPs the chance to vote on measures that would result in stripping Prince Andrew of his titles and would lead to an investigation into his finances, including his living arrangements.”