Outrage at Royal Family sealing Prince Andrew files: 'Something terrible in these papers'

Speaking on Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel, Cole said: “Isn't this absurd? Isn't it outrageous? And even worse, it's very unwise because by sealing these papers for so long, it invites the suspicion that there's something really terrible in these papers.

“Let's remind ourselves that the 10 years Prince Andrew, who was then the Light Lake quid second son, was acting as a trade envoy on our behalf, working for the Department of Trade and Industry, going around the world to boost British business and British industry and British commerce.

WATCH VIDEO IN FULL 

“Now what could be possibly controversial about that that it has to be sealed in such a dreadful way? Because it is dreadful.

“Because Andrew Lowney is a perfectly respectable and well known historian and writer and he's applied for these papers because he's writing a biography of of Prince Andrew.

He went on to explain why the Royal Family might be sealing the papers, he added: “I think his problem was he went and shot an elephant and he took his girlfriend with him and that that caused an awful lot of trouble in Madrid.

“The thing is, I I did the very first interview with Prince Andrew that he ever did on the day he got engaged to Sarah Ferguson and at that time I like them both.

"I enjoyed his company, they were a breath of fresh air.

“I went on all their first foreign trips.

"Over the years though circumstances have changed him and there were many reports that he was overbearing and rude on these journeys and representing this country on trips that we paid for the taxpayer.

“That is a very unfortunate and it could be that some of the ambassadors sent reports back to the Foreign Commonwealth Office and they noted this as they would be obliged to do and that would be a grave embarrassment to him.

"I think it's a it's a great shame. It's a big mistake.”

Cole, who has reported on the royals for a number of years explained that the royals are closing shop.

He said: “We're quite used to royal wills being sealed. We never ever see them. But I think I mean these secrets, whatever they are, are being suppressed far more rigorously than some of the remaining secrets from the Second World War.”