Prince Andrew says he has “ceased all contact” with the alleged Chinese spy

Prince Andrew has said he has “ceased all contact” with a businessman accused of being a Chinese spy after receiving advice from the government.

A statement from his office said Prince Andrew had met the man “through official channels” and “nothing sensitive was ever discussed”.

The alleged spy, known only as H6, was described in court as having formed an “unusual degree of trust” with the Duke and has since been banned from entering the UK after a decision by Britain’s semi-secret national security court.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government would “always stand ready to take action” on “any challenge or threat to the UK’s national security”.

In 2023, H6 appealed its original ban, but the court upheld the decision.

Magistrates were told the businessman tried to use Prince Andrew’s influence.

The duke’s office said he “cannot comment further on matters of national security”.

His statement did not specify when he stopped contact with the man and how long they had been in contact.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying it does not advocate for the prince, who is not a member of the royal family.

The Chinese embassy in the UK denied the spying claim, saying “some individuals in the UK are always keen to fabricate baseless ‘spy’ stories aimed at China”.

“Their aim is to denigrate China and disrupt normal exchanges between Chinese and British personnel,” an embassy spokesman said.

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman banned the H6 in the UK in March 2023.

He then took his case to the Special Immigration Appeals Board, a court created to hear appeals against decisions to bar or remove someone from the country on national security or related grounds.

In the village published rulingthe justices upheld Braverman’s decision.

Speaking from Italy, where she is due to talk about tackling migration in Europe, Cooper said: “Our security and intelligence services are constantly monitoring any threat to the UK’s national security.

“Whether it’s around foreign influence, whether it’s around espionage, whether it’s around any security threat. We will not hesitate to take action on a case-by-case basis or more broadly if any problem arises.”

The court was told that H6 was invited to Prince Andrew’s birthday party in 2020 and told he could act on his behalf when dealing with potential investors in China.

It is not clear how H6 became close to the prince, but in November 2021 he was stopped and questioned by police officers at the UK border as part of powers to investigate suspected “hostile activity” by a foreign power.

During the stop, H6 surrendered several electronic devices, including a cell phone.

What the officers found in them so alarmed the security service MI5 that Braverman used her exceptional powers to ban the H6 from entering the country.

In a letter found on one of his devices, H6 told Prince Andrew’s adviser Dominic Hampshire: “Outside of (the prince’s) closest inner confidants, you are sitting at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like. be on.”

Mr Hampshire adds: “Under your guidance we have found a way to get the relevant people in and out of the house in Windsor undetected.”

No details about who these “relevant persons” are are provided in the excerpt from the letter contained in the ruling.

Mr Hampshire also confirmed to H6 that he could act on Prince Andrew’s behalf in talks “with potential partners and investors in China”.

A document was also found with a list of “main topics for conversation” with Prince Andrew.

It says: “IMPORTANT: Manage expectations. It is very important not to set expectations ‘too high’ – he is in a desperate position and will grab anything.”

The court found that this meant that H6 was able to “create relationships between high-ranking Chinese officials and prominent UK figures which could be exploited for the purposes of political interference by the Chinese state”.

The judges said the H6 had won “an extraordinary degree of trust from a senior member of the royal family who was willing to go into business with him”.

They added that the relationship took place at a time when the prince was “under considerable pressure” which “could have made him vulnerable to the abuse of such influence”.

Since late 2019, the Prince has faced increasing scrutiny over his friendship with the late American financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which included his infamous Newsnight interview in November of that year.

He renounced royal duties in November 2019, and the prince has been dogged by questions about his judgment and finances ever since.

Questions arose about Prince’s finances after he reached a settlement — believed to be worth millions — in a civil sexual-assault lawsuit brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers. The prince has always denied attacking Ms Giuffre.

Isabel Hilton, editor of the China Dialogue, told BBC News that Chinese government agents usually target “members of the House of Lords or prominent businessmen or people who have a voice in society”.

She added that it was “very ambitious” to target the royal family and “very unwise for a member of the royal family to allow themselves to be targeted”.

Security chiefs feared Beijing was trying to mount an “elite capture” operation to influence the Duke of York because of the pressure he was under, a tactic aimed at appointing senior figures to Chinese businesses, think tanks or universities.

H6 was later informed that UK authorities believed he was linked to the United Front Works Department (UFWD), a branch of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with influence operations.

The order said MI5 Director General Ken McCallum expressed concern about the threat posed to the UK by political interference from China and that bodies such as the UFWD “are deploying patient, well-funded, deceptive campaigns to buy and influence”. .

The Home Office said it believed H6 was engaged in covert and fraudulent activities on behalf of the CCP and that his relationship with Prince Andrew could be used for political interference.

Suella Braverman has now called on H6 to remain anonymous and told The Daily Telegraph that “revealing the identity of this person would have a deterrent effect”.

However, when asked whether anonymity should be removed, the Minister of Internal Affairs said: “We always respect court decisions and we also do not comment on individual cases.”