Prince Andrew spy row: What we know so far as duke says he 'ceased all contact' with businessman
A court heard an alleged spy was invited to Prince Andrew's birthday party and was authorised to act on his behalf when dealing with potential investors inside China. The duke says he has “ceased all contact” with the businessman. Royal Editor Chris Ship reports
The Duke of York has said he "ceased all contact" with a businessman accused of being a Chinese spy after receiving advice from the government, a statement from his office has said.
The unnamed businessman – described as a “close confidante” of Andrew – lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK for posing a national security risk.
A semi-secret court heard the man was invited to the prince's birthday party and was authorised to act on Andrew's behalf when dealing with potential investors inside China.
A former security minister called the saga "extremely embarrassing" for the prince.
Here's what we know so far.
What do we know about the alleged spy?
The alleged spy can't be named, but we know he was born in March 1974. He came to the UK to study at the University of York in 2002.
Three years later, he set up a travel company in the UK, and was granted indefinite “Leave to Remain” in the UK in 2013.
But in 2021, Counter Terrorism officers seized his phone. Two years later, in March 2023, then-home secretary Suella Braverman said the businessman should be excluded from the UK after he was accused of working for a branch of the Chinese government called the United Front Work Department.
The man, known only as H6, brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after Ms Braverman's intervention.
What was learned at the court hearing?
At a hearing in July, the specialist tribunal heard that the businessman was told by an adviser to Andrew that he could act on the duke’s behalf when dealing with potential investors in China, and that H6 had been invited to Andrew’s birthday party in 2020.
Judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed H6 had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”.
They also said that H6 had downplayed his relationship with the Chinese state, which combined with his relationship with Andrew, 64, represented a threat to national security.
The UK's semi-secret national security court noted his "unusual degree of trust" with the Duke of York.
A letter referencing the birthday party from one of the duke's adviser, Dominic Hampshire, was discovered on H6’s devices when he was stopped at a port in November 2021.
In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon, dismissed the challenge.
What are the prince's links to the alleged spy?
The saga dates back to 2019, when Prince Andrew took his Dragon’s Den-type networking platform – Pitch@Palace – to China.
Court documents suggest one of the prince’s Chinese contacts was someone suspected by the British government of being a spy.
Among the data downloaded from the phone seized by counter terrorism officers in 2021 were messages from one of Andrew’s advisers, Dominic Hampshire. He had written to the suspected spy in 2002 and spoke of bypassing people they don't trust and getting people in and out of the House of Windsor.
Mr Hampshire said: “I hope it is clear to where you sit with my principal [Prince Andrew] and indeed his family.
“Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”
How did Prince Andrew become involved?In 2015, the Duke of York was a working royal and it was the UK's government policy to be close to China.
Andrew was included in the Chinese State Visit in London; he even introduced Chinese Premier Xi Jinping to the then Chancellor George Osborne.
In a statement released on Friday evening, Prince Andrew's office said: "The Duke of York followed advice from HMG and ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised."The duke met the individual through official channels, with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed."He is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security."
What has China said?
In a statement, the Chinese Embassy said the story was an attempt to "smear China".
"Some people in the UK are so keen on making up all kinds of 'spy' stories against China. This again is a typical case of the thief crying 'catch thief'. Their purpose is to smear China and sabotage normal people-to-people exchanges between China and the UK. We strongly condemn this," the statement said.
"Some on the British side repeatedly use China's United Front work as a pretext to accuse China of wrongdoing, discredit China's political system, and undermine normal exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK. Such sinister plots will never succeed."
How embarrassing is this for Andrew and the Royal Family?
Since his very public and dramatic fall from grace, Prince Andrew has been slowly allowed back into the occasional family event, including as Windsor Castle in Easter but these revelations are likely to put this royal rehabilitation on hold.
Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative MP for Tonbridge who served in the Cabinet as minister of state for security in the last government, admitted on Friday the episode was “extremely embarrassing”.What is the United Front Works Department?
The United Front Works Department is a branch of the Chinese Communist Party. It is trying to exert influence through academics, through businesses, through people of influence, including in Parliament, and perhaps, as these documents suggest, through the Royal Family.
New episodes of Talking Royals are released every week - listen and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts