Squiz Shortcuts - Prince Andrew's spy scandal

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Your Shortcut to Prince Andrew’s spy scandal

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, stepped away from official duties with the UK’s royal family in 2019, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped causing them headaches. Last week, another of his problematic relationships surfaced - this time with a businessman accused of spying for China. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll take a look at:

• how this relationship came to light

• and why it’s caused concern in the UK.

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Where is Prince Andrew in the Royal pecking order?
He’s the third child of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and the younger brother of King Charles - but he’s not a big part of the royal family anymore, and that’s largely because of his friendship with the now-dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Back it up a bit…
Epstein was a convicted paedophile who was found to have trafficked young girls to his rich and powerful friends. Prince Andrew has always claimed he never knew about Epstein’s crimes, and that he never engaged in sex with underage girls. He sat down for a TV interview with the UK’s Newsnight in 2019 to say so…

I’ve heard of that interview
If the Royals are anywhere on your radar, you will have. It’s famous for being a PR disaster. Shortly afterwards, the Prince was suspended from his royal duties and much of his funding was cut off. Now, another of his problematic relationships has emerged…

Who with?
It’s come to light that the Duke had a business relationship and possibly a friendship with a Chinese businessman who was banned from entering the UK in 2023. He’s been named as Yang Tengbo, also known as Chris Yang. He was stopped at a British airport in 2021 under counter-terrorism laws…

Did the authorities find anything?
Yang’s phone was taken by police at the time - and what they found on it and his other electronic devices started a process that led to him being banned from the UK. That ban was upheld last week by the UK’s Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which is specifically set up to hear decisions about those who’ve been banned for national security reasons…

What’s his connection to Prince Andrew?
In their decision, the judges said that letters found on the phone showed that Yang had been told by Dominic Hampshire, one of Prince Andrew’s advisers, that he was “at the very top of a tree” of people who had a relationship with him, outside of his closest confidants… Another excerpt of the letter said “we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor”.

Intriguing… who might they be?
Well, we don’t know who those people are, but this is some of the evidence that’s been presented in upholding Yang’s ban.

Anything else?
Yep… A key finding of the case was that Prince Andrew was considered particularly susceptible to this kind of influence because he was under pressure over his relationship with Epstein, as well as a lawsuit brought against him by Virginia Guiffre, who accused him of sexual assault - that case was settled in 2022.

What are they getting at?
In a nutshell, they’re saying that because Prince Andrew no longer has access to a royal salary and both he and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson have been under financial pressure - which was a big factor in their controversial relationship with Epstein - he may be a target for foreign spies.

What has Prince Andrew said about it all?
His office says he’s cut off all communication with Yang and they only ever met in an official context. But the whole affair has come at an inconvenient time for the UK government.

Why is that?
UK PM Keir Starmer - the first UK PM to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping since 2018 - is trying to build stronger economic ties with China.

What’s China’s position on Yang?
China has maintained that Yang is innocent of the espionage charges against him, and their London embassy has described the allegations as “baseless” and “a smear against China”. So it’s tension the new Labour government could do without.

What is the Royal Family saying?
As usual, the palace has been tight-lipped. But it seems Prince Andrew is on the King’s naughty list as reports say he won’t be joining the Royal Family at Sandringham for Christmas… In the meantime, those in the know say Buckingham Palace has launched its own investigation into the spy scandal - but maybe don’t hold your breath for the outcome to be made public on that one…

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Onto our recommendations

Watching: The movie Scoop on Netflix, and/or if you’ve got a bit more time to invest, the series A Very Royal Scandal: Season 3 on Prime Video… They’re both absorbing, nail-biting dramatisations of the infamous 2019 Newsnight interview between Emily Maitlis and Prince Andrew.

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