BORIS Johnson has revealed the three crazy ideas Andew Mountbatten-Windsor had to “improve the UK”.

The former prime minister also detailed the former prince’s plans to “wave through billionaire pals” to the UK.

The then Prince Andrew with Boris Johnson attend the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London on November 9, 2019Credit: AFP or licensors
 

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One idea Mountbatten-Windsor had was to knock down Battersea Power Station, Mr Johnson claimsCredit: AFP
 

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Mr Johnson says his encounter with Mountbatten-Windsor at Buckingham Palace was ‘a bit bizarre’Credit: Getty
Mountbatten-Windsor, then Prince Andrew, made the startling revelations to Mr Johnson when the politician was Mayor of London and had been summoned to Buckingham Palace for tea by the member of the Royal Family, who was working as a trade envoy.

Recalling the meeting in his Daily Mail column, Mr Johnson described the encounter as being “a bit bizarre”.

One idea Mountbatten-Windsor had was how to make London more attractive to billionaire investors.

The former Duke of York considered Battersea Power Station “an eyesore, a ruin”, according to Mr Johnson.

Mountbatten-Windsor is said to have asked: “Why don’t we just knock it down?”

Mr Johnson’s deputy mayor Sir Simon Milton then had to explain that it was a Grade 1-listed building, an ‘architectural masterpiece” and part of the country’s “cultural heritage”

It was explained to Mountbatten-Windsor that the site probably could be developed but without destruction.

The then prince is quoted as saying: “It’ll never happen.”

Sir Simon, in response, is said to have looked about the room in the palace before asking: “Why don’t we knock down Buckingham Palace?”
Which, reportedly, caused Mountbatten-Windsor to glare at the then deputy mayor.

Another piece of advice the royal imparted concerned London Heathrow airport, apparently a lot of his friends and potentially significant investors had complained about the queues at immigration and not enough of his pals were “allowed to use the VIP suite”.

At the time, Mr Johnson had been proposing to build a new airport in the Thames estuary but one problem was the presence of a sunken World War II munitions boat, the SS Richard Montgomery.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s idea, according tor Mr Johnson, was to “make a huge steel net and wrap it round the wreck so that if it exploded the shock waves would not damage the airport”.

The then Prince Andrew is then said to have turned his attention to the capital’s traffic congestion, saying his pals were fed up of it and he thought it was “damaging London’s reputation”.

King Charles’ younger brother suggested the traffic lights could simply be rephased, giving more time on green to speed things up for people heading out of London for the weekend.

Mr Johnson wrote in his article: “I tried to persuade him that actually we did something of the kind (called Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique, or Scoot, since you ask), but that there were limits to what you could do, what with the cross-traffic and so on.”

He added: “I could tell that our answers hadn’t really satisfied him, and that he had visions of billionaires being waved through Heathrow and through a series of green and deferential traffic lights to look hungrily at building sites being cleared of pesky heritage buildings.”

Despite the encounter, Mr Johnson said he “felt a bit sorry for him”, saying: He was the second son in a system that insisted on male primogeniture. The result was that he didn’t have a role.”

Mr Johnson also relates a tale about the last conversation he had with Mountbatten-Windsor when he was prime minister and had to break the news to Andrew at Windsor Castle about not being able to attend a public ceremony “for fear of embarrassing his mother and the whole institution of the monarchy”.

Having let him know the situation, Mr Johnson claims he tried to cheer him up and he needed to build back his reputation in the wake of his disastrous Newsnight interview.

Mr Johnson suggested Mountbatten-Windsor open a country pub with his former wife Sarah Ferguson.

He thought they should call it the Duke of York.

Mr Johnson claims Andrew looked at him “sharp” to suggest his leg was being pulled.

But Mr Johnson claims he was being serious.

Despite Mountbatten-Windsors current troubles, Mr Johnson claims that he hasn’t advanced the republican cause.

Mr Johnson wrote: “It’s precisely because he makes us shudder, and think of the alternative, that Andrew has done the monarchy a favour.”

He added: “By the sheer scale of his disgrace, he has paradoxically intensified the dignity of the crown.”

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Mountbatten-Windsor also suggested rephasing London’s traffic lights, according to Boris JohnsonCredit: Getty