Anger as Sir Fred Goodwin has meeting with Duke of York

HE WAS once dubbed "the world's worst banker" and faced calls to be stripped of his knighthood. But Sir Fred Goodwin has taken another step along the road of rehabilitation in the eyes of polite society after he travelled to Buckingham Palace to meet Prince Andrew.

The Scotsman can reveal the disgraced former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland met the Duke of York on Friday as part of his duties as a consultant to Edinburgh-based architects RMJM. Sir Fred, who was forced from his role at RBS after it was saved from near-collapse by a 24 billion taxpayer bailout, has been employed by the architects' practice since January, a move that led politicians to call for a boycott of the firm.

Sir Fred accompanied RMJM chief executive Peter Morrison to the meeting, which lasted about an hour, and examined opportunities for the firm in overseas markets.

The duke is an international trade ambassador and represents British firms across the world as they seek to win lucrative foreign contracts.

His role saw him become embroiled in a recent undercover sting that revealed his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, was prepared to sell access to him for a fee of 500,000. The duke maintains he had no knowledge of her offer, and there is no suggestion RMJM paid any fee to broker Friday's meeting.

Yesterday, a Buckingham Palace spokesman confirmed the meeting had taken place.

"Sir Fred is working for a team of architects and in that capacity he came on Friday to discuss how the Duke of York, as a special representative for trade and investment, could help out the company," the spokesman said.

"It is a large architectural practice and they had a chat about forthcoming projects so that when the duke goes overseas he can lobby for them. It certainly wasn't a personal meeting."

But the talks drew criticism from politicians, unhappy the disgraced banker was operating in such a high-profile role.

Scottish Labour MP Michael Connarty said the meeting was "very unsavoury". "Clearly (RMJM] were buying his address book and I am surprised his address book contained members of the Royal Family."

He went on: "This makes the whole unsavoury business even more distasteful. The public and the businesses I have been fighting for over the last two years are getting no respite from the problems caused by Sir Fred and his cohorts. This makes me even more disgusted that business is being run on the basis of who you know."

Independent MSP Margo Macdonald added: "I am sure they had a great deal to talk about, because it takes one to know one. I get the feeling that politics and the establishment is like a jigsaw that has been put in the wrong box – nothing fits at the moment."

• The Duchess of York has admitted she had been drinking before she offered access to her ex-husband for cash.

In a clip from the interview with TV host Oprah Winfrey, Sarah Ferguson said she was "in the gutter" when she was caught out by an undercover reporter.

In the full interview, due to be broadcast today, she tells Winfrey: "I'm aware of the fact that I've been drinking, that I was not in my right place."