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Sex scandal damages royal family's standing - Brexit Party's Farage

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PETERBOROUGH, England (Reuters) - A sex scandal surrounding Prince Andrew has damaged the standing of Britain's royal family, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said on Tuesday.

Andrew, Queen Elizabeth's second son, denies an allegation that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl procured for him by his friend Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in a U.S. prison in August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Andrew's explanations in a disastrous TV interview aired on Saturday left many viewers incredulous.

"It was the fact that he didn't show any regret for that (friendship with Epstein) or sort of almost any sympathy at all for the people who had been trafficked," Farage said during a visit to the English city of Peterborough.

Asked whether Andrew had damaged the royal family's standing, Farage said: "They are all trying to do that apart from the queen."

"I think the queen just becomes this ever more exalted figure and the public are beginning to look at those who come afterwards with quite a degree of scepticism at the moment," he said.

Buckingham Palace declined comment on Farage's remarks.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Timothy Heritage)