Prince Andrew aide ‘tried to help spy suspect’

A senior advisor to the Prince supported an alleged Chinese spy despite intelligence services contacting him over their suspicions, an immigration tribunal has been told.

Prince Andrew with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.

A senior aide to Prince Andrew supported an alleged Chinese spy despite being warned of his activities by the intelligence services, an immigration tribunal was told yesterday (Friday).

Dominic Hampshire wrote a legal statement backing Yang Tengbo’s appeal against his ban from the UK because of concern about his close relationship with the Duke of York.

Publications including The Times are applying to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission for the secrecy order on Hampshire’s statement to be lifted on the grounds of public interest.

Adam Wolanski KC, representing the media, said: “The intelligence services were in contact with Mr Hampshire about [Yang] in 2022, well before the final decision was taken [to ban him from the UK].”

Yang was banned from returning to the UK in February 2023 on national security grounds.

Hampshire, 56, was a key conduit between Andrew, 64, and Yang as they discussed using the royal family’s reputation to help set up a pounds 2.6 billion investment fund and a think tank, which would promote closer relationships with the Communist regime in Beijing. The royal aide claims he agreed to produce the statement supporting Yang in May last year after being assured by the businessman’s lawyers that it would remain confidential, the commission was told.

In the withheld witness statement Hampshire explains his relationship with the Duke of York, his former formal position within the royal household and “highly sensitive confidential information about [his] dealings with a UK government agency”.

Yang alongside Prince Andrew at an event.

Hampshire told the commission in a written submission: “I wrote what I did in the statement with such candour - including about my own confidential commercial interests but also about the private interests of third parties - in the expectation it was for the private attention of one of the most senior ministries of state on a grave matter.

“I quite simply would not have volunteered to write about those matters had I known that there was any chance, however small, that it was for use in a forum which was or could become public.”

Hampshire described himself in the submission only as the secretary of the Quad Centenary Club, which was set up to raise funds for the Royal Blackheath Golf Club, where Andrew had been chairman. He said that he met Yang’s lawyers before the appeal in July last year and attended the hearing.

“I made it abundantly and immediately clear to Mr Yang’s legal team that I would withdraw my evidence and consent if the session was not held in private,” he added.

Hampshire, of Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, said that when the judge ruled that the hearing would be in public, Yang instructed his lawyers to withdraw his evidence and he was told that it would not be referred to in open court or used as part of the businessman’s case.

Wolanski said: “It is extraordinary that a person in Mr Hampshire’s position, apparently charged with dealing with confidential and sensitive matters on behalf of the Duke of York, did not bother obtaining his own legal advice before agreeing to provide a witness statement to Mr Yang.

He added: “There is already much in the public domain about the Duke of York, Mr Hampshire and their dealings with Mr Yang. The court in its judgment concluded that Mr Yang won a significant degree of trust from the Duke of York who was prepared to enter into business activities with him.”

Although Yang claimed he would not rely on Hampshire’s statement, he continued to use it in the private hearings, the commission was told.

Hampshire wrote to Yang in March 2021 confirming the businessman could act on behalf of the duke in engagements with potential partners and investors in China. He wrote: “I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal and indeed his family. You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship ... outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”

The media is also applying for the release of documents relating to Yang’s dealings with McLaren Automotive to help the supercar manufacturer enter the Chinese market. It also wants the disclosure of documents relating to consultancy services provided by Yang’s company to GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical giant, during a whistleblowing investigation in China.

Yang, 50, has said the allegations against him are “entirely unfounded, I have done nothing wrong”.

The hearing continues.

THE TIMES