So the Chancellor of the Exchequer has weighed in on Prince Andrew. And she is not mincing words.
Rachel Reeves was asked whether Andrew should repay any public funds he may have misused while serving as trade envoy. Her answer was two words. Of course.
When asked if she agreed with Chris Bryant's description of Andrew as rude, arrogant and entitled, Reeves said she had never met him and that was probably for the best.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer. Saying publicly that not meeting a senior royal was probably for the best. That is where we are now.
But let me tell you what prompted this. Because the details are extraordinary.
Andrew served as Special Representative for International Trade and Investment for a decade. A decade of taxpayer funded travel. A decade of expenses. A decade of representing British business interests overseas.
And according to former civil servants, he was expensing private massages.
One ex-official told the BBC they thought it was wrong. They said they had told their superiors they must not pay it. But they ended up paying it anyway. They were overruled by senior officials.
Let that sink in. Civil servants looked at Andrew's expense claims, said this is wrong, said we should not pay this, and were told to pay it anyway.
Another former Whitehall official who oversaw finances said they could not believe it. They said it was like it was not real money. They said Andrew and his team were not spending any of their own money.
It was not real money to them. Taxpayer funds. Public money. Treated like a limitless account for a prince who wanted massages on his trade visits.
And this connects to something darker.
Jeffrey Epstein's former housekeeper Juan Alessi has previously testified that Andrew had daily massages at the paedophile's Florida home. Daily. At the home of a man who was trafficking girls for sexual abuse.
A masseuse named Monique Giannelloni has claimed she gave Andrew a naked massage at Buckingham Palace. She said she was ushered in by a valet, bypassing security. She said Andrew emerged from his bathroom completely naked. Her seventy five pound payment was signed off by Andrew's personal assistant and paid from the Royal Family's Coutts account. The invoice was branded with the Palace logo.
So we have a pattern. Massages at Epstein's home. Massages at Buckingham Palace. Massages expensed to the taxpayer while on trade visits. Civil servants saying this is wrong and being overruled.
And for a decade, nobody stopped it.
The government is now going to publish documents relating to Andrew's appointment as trade envoy. Documents concerning Lord Mandelson, who backed Andrew's appointment, are also set to be released. Mandelson himself was taken into custody on Monday as part of the misconduct in public office probe.
The Sun reports that Keir Starmer will look to pass an Act of Parliament to remove Andrew's remaining titles once the police investigation concludes.
This is not going away. This is escalating.
Chris Bryant stood up in Parliament and called Andrew rude, arrogant and entitled. The Chancellor said she was glad she had never met him. Former civil servants are on record saying they tried to refuse his expenses and were overruled.
The protection is crumbling. The people who were told to stay quiet are talking. The officials who were overruled are now telling their stories.
And the question Rachel Reeves answered with two words is the question the whole country is asking.
Should Andrew pay it back?
Of course.
Of course he should pay back the massages. Of course he should pay back the expenses that civil servants said were wrong. Of course he should pay back the decade of taxpayer funded travel while he was meeting with Epstein and accepting gifts from oligarchs and selling his house to Kazakhs for three million pounds above asking price.
Of course.
But paying it back is the least of his problems now. He was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was held for eleven hours. He was photographed slumped in the back of a car with red eyes on his sixty sixth birthday.
The massages are just the beginning. The expenses are just the paper trail. The real questions are about what he did while he was being paid by the taxpayer to represent Britain abroad.
And those questions are now being asked by the police.