The King is urgently and actively considering banishing Prince Andrew from the Order of the Garter, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal.

Top-level discussions are under way at Buckingham Palace after the latest embarrassing scandals involving the Duke of York.

It is even possible there could be an official announcement later today.

The Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III in 1348, is Britain's most senior order of chivalry.

It is an honour known to be highly prized by Andrew, and its removal would be a serious blow for him.

The monarch can strip the honour from members of the order, although it is understood that Charles would much prefer his brother to voluntarily relinquish the title.

The final straw for the King is understood to have been The Mail on Sunday's exclusive revelation last weekend that Andrew responded to the paper's original report about his alleged sexual encounter with Virginia Giuffre by emailing Jeffrey Epstein and saying 'we are in this together'.

Of course now the Duke claims never to have met Virginia and insists The Mail on Sunday's extraordinary photograph of him with his arm around the then-17-year-old's midriff was fake.

One of the last people to be removed from the Order of the Garter was Emperor Hirohito of Japan after his country joined the Second World War in 1941.

Another option could be to strip Andrew of his Duke of York title, but this would involve an Act of Parliament and considerable parliamentary time, so is much less likely.