Prince Andrew heads to Windsor alone as Royal Family celebrates Christmas without him
Prince Andrew has headed to Windsor alone as the ‘less than pleased’ Royal Family celebrates Christmas without him after Chinese ‘spy’ row.
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Prince Andrew has been snapped alone at Windsor as King Charles and the other royals arrive at Sandringham for Christmas.
The Duke of York was seen heading for an afternoon walk on his own after opting not to attend the festivities with his family.
He declined the invitation amid pressure to stay out of sight over the China “spy” scandal.
The monarch, meanwhile, was all smiles as he waved at well-wishers outside St Mary Magdalene Church.
It is traditional for members of the royal family to head to the royal estate in Norfolk ahead of Christmas Eve before enjoying a lavish lunch on December 25.
The Sun revealed the King’s other brother Prince Edward and wife Sophie were “unhappy” at plans for them to share a cottage with Andrew over the festive period.
The couple were said to be “less than pleased” when informed they would be bunking up with the disgraced Duke of York at Sandringham.
Yet their fears evaporated when Andrew sent back his invitation.
He is instead expected to spend the festive period in Windsor with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who has described herself as a “carer” looking after a “sad man”.
An insider said Edward and Sophie were disappointed last year when “effectively given the servants’ quarters” in Norfolk for the festive royal get-together.
The Edinburghs felt this year’s choice of Wood Farm — Prince Philip’s former hideout — was a “step up” but were unhappy at the thought of Christmas “cheek by jowl with the Yorks”.
The pair were “relieved”, the insider said, when Fergie “encouraged and cajoled” Andrew to stay away.
It had been suggested his decision was made easier as daughters Beatrice and Eugenie were due to spend Christmas with their in-laws and not at Sandringham.
However, Beatrice will now go to Norfolk with husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi and their daughter Sienna, two.
She is pregnant and they were advised it was safer not to fly abroad to see his family, it is understood.
Andrew also pulled out of a pre-Christmas lunch for royals at Buckingham Palace on Thursday.
He has faced mounting pressure after his links to Chinese “spy” Yang Tengbo emerged.
The Royal Household is investigating claims he took Tengbo to Buckingham Palace and Windsor.
The Sun reported a leaked email shows the duke boasted about having been afforded preferential treatment in opening an account with the Bank of China in 2008.
The account is understood to have been based in China and would have allowed Andrew to take payments for business deals outside of the glare of UK authorities.
ANDREW TO ‘DO A HARRY’ AND MOVE ABROAD
Prince Andrew is expected to leave the United Kingdom to spend much of his time at a fully-staffed palace gifted by the Abu Dhabi royal family, according to a new report.
Friends of the Duke of York reportedly believe the besieged Prince will “do a Harry” due to what he thinks is unfair treatment over his friendship with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
Royal historian Andrew Lownie, set to publish a new biography of the second son in 2025, told The Daily Beast that Prince Andrew is “expected to go between the two” countries.
“Andrew has been given the use of a palace by the Abu Dhabi authorities. It costs them nothing. He has been spending a lot of time out there in recent years and I am told by reliable sources that from next year he may divide his time between the Middle East and the U.K.,” he told The Daily Beast.
“It makes sense for him; there is good weather, he is treated with deference, there are a lot of golf courses, and he can conduct his business affairs however he sees fit.”
Prince Andrew was first gifted access to the lavish palace when he was the UK’s s “special representative” for Trade and Investment from 2001 to 2011, when he stepped down over his connections to disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
His potential semi-self exile comes after the unmasking of a Chinese businessman that British authorities allege is a spy for the Communist Party.
He has been in a long-running pitched battle with his brother, King Charles, over his refusal to leave the Royal Lodge.
ALLEGED CHINESE SPY UNMASKED
It came as details emerged about the suspected Chinese spy who was friends with Prince Andrew as a photo emerged of the Duke of York next to the man at a business event.
Yang Tengbo, 50 – who is understood to have been a “close confidante” of the Duke of York – can be named after a court anonymity ban was lifted.
During a tribunal hearing, judges concluded Yang had not been honest about his links to the Chinese state and could exploit his relationship with the duke and other public figures.
The former chairman of Hampton Group had been in Britain for two decades.
Photos show him posing alongside ex-Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May, as well as Prince Andrew.
He was even invited to the Duke of York’s birthday party in 2020 and supported him through his recent scandals, The Sun reports.
But the suspected spy subsequently lost an appeal against a decision to ban him on national security grounds.
He was stopped by counter-terrorism services in 2021 and ordered to surrender his devices.
Court documents said Yang divided his time between China and the UK and told officials he considered England his second home.
In February last year, he was “off-boarded” from a flight from Beijing to London and told the home secretary was in the process of examining the case to exclude him from the UK.
That order was made the following month, with his appeal against the decision rejected last week by a special immigration appeals tribunal.
Judges concluded Yang had not been honest about his links to the Chinese state and could exploit his relationship with the duke and other public figures.
Guy Vassall-Adams KC, for Yang, 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.”
Yang said he has “done nothing wrong or unlawful”, adding in a statement that the “widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue”.
It comes after The Sun reported a foreign agent knew how to sneak people in and out of the duke’s Royal Lodge home.
The shock revelation emerged in a letter from one of the royal’s top advisers, Dominic Hampshire, to the spy.
Mr Hampshire continued to work for Prince Andrew even after the note was found by MI5 on the spy’s phone in 2020.
It read: “I hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal (Andrew) and indeed his family. “You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship.
“You sit at the very top of a tree many people would like to be on.”
Prince Andrew’s reputation was already in tatters over his ties to convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein, which has seen him forced to step back from frontline royal duties and be stripped of his honorary military titles.
A statement from Andrew’s office said that he had “followed advice” from the government and “ceased all contact with [Yang] after concerns were raised”.
“The duke met the individual through official channels, with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed,” it added.
CHINESE ‘SPY’ VOLUNTEERED UNMASKING, ISSUES STATEMENT
In a statement issued on his behalf, Mr Yang said he had done “nothing wrong or unlawful” and descriptions of him as an alleged spy were “entirely untrue”.
The statement said he had voluntarily waived his right to anonymity.
Mr Yang said: “Due to the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere, I have asked my legal team to disclose my identity.”
I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.
“This is why I applied for a review of the Home Office decision in the first place, and why I am seeking permission to appeal the SIAC decision.
“It is also why an order extending my anonymity up to the point of determination of the appeal process was granted...
“The political climate has changed, and unfortunately, I have fallen victim to this.
“When relations are good, and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK. When relations sour, an anti-China stance is taken, and I am excluded.”
UK PRIME MINISTER ‘CONCERNED’
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he was “concerned about the challenge that China poses” following revelations that a suspected Chinese spy became close to disgraced royal Prince Andrew.
“Of course we are concerned about the challenge that China poses,” Mr Starmer said, but defended his approach of “engagement” with Beijing.
“Our approach is one of engagement, of co-operating where we need to co-operate, particularly, for example, on issues like climate change, to challenge where we must and where we should,” he added.
Starmer last month became the first UK prime minister since 2018 to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
PRINCE ANDREW SPY LINK IS ‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith told BBC radio the suspected spy linked to Prince Andrew was only the “tip of the iceberg” of Beijing’s espionage activities in the UK.
Judges upheld a ban on H6 (Yang) from entering the country, saying that the government had been “entitled to conclude that his exclusion was justified and proportionate”.
In the ruling, judges assessed H6 was in a position to “generate relationships between senior Chinese officials and prominent UK figures which could be leveraged for political interference purposes by the Chinese State”.
“The fact is, there are many more like him in the UK,” Duncan Smith told BBC radio.
Former UK interior minister Suella Braverman banned H6 from entering the country in 2023 after her ministry found he had engaged in “covert and deceptive activity” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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