Prince Andrew reportedly ‘won’t join royals for Christmas dinner’ after Chinese spy scandal

 

UK royals, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson won’t be joining the rest of the Royal Family for Christmas dinner.

The Duke of York has faced scrutiny recently after his links to an alleged Chinese spy were published for the first time.

Prince Andrew has now reportedly declined to spend Christmas with the rest of the Royal Family this year but whether it is due to his relationship with the alleged spy is not known yet.

The alleged spy, Yang Tengbo, was banned from the UK by MI5 last week due to the potential security threat.

He had been under an anonymity order known only as ‘H6’ until he revealed his name publicly to deny the allegations against him.

On Friday last week the Duke said he had ‘ceased all contact’ with Tengbo following ‘advice’ from officials, and said he had never discussed anything of a ‘sensitive nature’ with him.

Yang penetrated the upper echelons of British society and had been invited to Buckingham Palace by Prince Andrew, but said in a statement he ‘would never do anything to harm the interests of the UK’ after his identity was revealed.

The 50-year-old Yang said he has ‘done nothing wrong or unlawful’, adding that the ‘widespread description of me as a “spy” is entirely untrue’.

In 2023, Yang who also is known as Tengbo Yang and Chris Yang was banned from the UK by then-home secretary Suella Braverman after MI5 became concerned about information found on his phone.

According to the Sunday Times, the figures he met include David Cameron at a Downing Street reception and Theresa May at a black-tie event over the last 15 years.

He was also invited to Prince Andrew’s birthday party in 2020.

Officials told the UK home secretary in a briefing that Yang was able to generate relationships between top figures in UK and China ‘that could be leveraged for political interference purposes’.

Yang’s lawyer Guy Vassall-Adams KC told the High Court: ‘There has been an enormous amount of media reporting in relation to this story, and particularly in relation to the relationship between my client, H6, and Prince Andrew, as well as a huge amount of speculation about the identity of my client.’

Following the exposure of his identity, Farage tweeted: ‘I am pleased that pressure by Reform over the last 48 hours has now led to this man being named. The public deserve to know.’