Prince Harry and Prince Andrew forbidden to act on King Charles’ behalf to avoid ‘potential problem’

nypost.com:

Prince Harry and Prince Andrew have been royally flushed.Buckingham Palace announced on Wednesday that the two royals will not be among the Counsellors of State that can carry out engagements on the behalf of King Charles III when he is hospitalized next week for a planned procedure to treat his enlarged prostate.While the 75-year-old monarch’s condition is benign and he will still be capable of fulfilling his constitutional requirements and duties during this time, King Charles was forced to cancel all public engagements.

The role of a Counsellor of State is to stand in for the monarch and that person can act on the monarch’s behalf through the Letters Patent if he is incapacitated, but because Prince Andrew, 63, and Prince Harry, 39, are not working royals, their eligibility was quietly declared null and void after Charles took the throne following Queen Elizabeth’s death.

According to the Times of London, “in a hitherto unnoticed statement during the second reading of the bill in the Lords on November 21 2022, Lord True, lord privy seal and leader of the Lords, said that the royal household had confirmed that in practice only working members of the royal family will be called on to act as counsellors of state.”“They’ve taken the most sensible option,” royal expert Dickie Arbiter explained, according to Vanity Fair. “Only Parliament can remove them as Counsellors of State and they’ve got their hands full so the [royal] household have said only working royals can stand in for the king which is a neat and sensible solution to a potential problem.”Arbiter continued, “Let’s not forget this is the first time Charles has been in hospital since he broke his arm in 1990 so he has had a wonderful run of health.