Left-wing and nationalist MPs  called for a formal investigation after a Swiss newspaper report alleged he had received $100 million from the late Saudi ruler King Abdullah, The Times reports.

The report in La Tribune de Genève said Swiss prosecutors are trying to establish if the Saudis were involved in a controversial transaction which led to his abdication.

A parliamentary committee overseeing the business of the Spanish parliament’s lower house has rejected a proposed inquiry into the allegations.

Although two Podemos members of the committee backed the inquiry, their coalition partners in centre-left PSOE joined right-wing MPs in rejecting it on the basis that the former king has immunity under the constitution.