test - Prince Andrew's sexual assault case to be raised in UK parliament

A British politician has said that he will raise the issue of Prince Andrew's case in the country's parliament to seek assurances that public money will not be used to pay for the sexual assault lawsuit settlement.

As per a US court filing, Prince Andrew and his accuser Virginia Giuffre have settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum. Giuffre's lawyer David Boies wrote that they "have reached an out of court settlement". The financial terms were not revealed.

As per media reports, Queen Elizabeth II has agreed to help Andrew settle the case by "personally making a £2million donation to Giuffre's charity".

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Now, Andy McDonald, who is a British Labour politician and Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough has said that he would raise the issue next week when MPs return to Westminster after their half-term break.

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He told BBC Two’s Newsnight: "This is a person of very high profile involved in a case where his position of authority and privilege has been allegedly abused and it is an enormous sum of money."

He added, "We don't know the precise figure but there is a risk that this will be at the public's expense so we need to have that resolved. We need to know exactly where this money is coming from."

McDonald said that he is going to take the opportunity to raise the issue in parliament because "the issue isn't going to go away" until people have that "information and receive assurances" that public money is not going to be used to settle the settlement.

The settlement states that UK's Prince Andrew, the Duke of York will make a "substantial donation" to a charity established by Giuffre that supports sex trafficking victims.

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Previously, Giuffre claimed that she had sex with Andrew when she was 17 and a minor under US law after meeting him through the late US financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew has not been criminally charged and has denied the allegations and the settlement means the civil case will not go to a jury trial.

It also means Andrew, 61, will no longer be questioned under oath by Giuffre's lawyers, who had been due to travel to London next month.

(With inputs from agencies)