Boris Johnson reveals Andrew 'wanted to knock down 1 of London's most famous buildings'

Boris Johnson has revealed one of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's bombshell ideas when he had the role of a UK trade envoy. The disgraced former Duke of York served as the UK's trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.

In his new column for the Daily Mail, the former Prime Minister, who was also Mayor of London between 2008 and 2016, spoke about their first "bizarre" meeting together at Buckingham Palace. He claimed Andrew wanted to "knock down" one of London's most famous buildings - Battersea Power Station. The iconic Grade II* listed building is located on the south bank of the River Thames.

According to Mr Johnson, Andrew wanted to make London "even more attractive".

He wrote: "The Prince was then the government's official trade envoy. So, we did. We went off to tea at Buckingham Palace, and it was all a bit bizarre.

"The Duke of York had a series of ideas, perhaps gleaned from some of his international contacts, about how we could make London even more attractive to the world's billionaire investors. Bear in mind that this was back in the good old days, before Starmer's Pol Pot war on wealth creators. London at the time had more billionaires than any other city in the world.

"But the Duke thought that we could do better. Look at Battersea Power Station, he said.

"It was an eyesore, a ruin. It was blocking the development of a huge and potentially lucrative site at Vauxhall.

"Why don't we just knock it down,' he said. As it happens, I had brought with me the late Sir Simon Milton, my wonderful deputy mayor. Simon tried to explain that the former power station was an architectural masterpiece. It was listed Grade 1, part of our cultural heritage. We were sure we could develop the site, but without destruction.

"Andrew was unconvinced. 'It'll never happen,' he said."

Andrew's time as a trade envoy recently came into the spotlight after documents from the three million Epstein files revealed that he may have shared confidential information with the convicted sex offender.

He was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office but was released after 11 hours under investigation.

Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing.