Prince Andrew was deemed a potential national security risk because of his close links to alleged Chinese spies, The Telegraph can disclose.
Multiple sources have told The Telegraph that concerns about the Prince were raised by the security services as long ago as 2021 and reached the highest levels of government.
Before he gave up his Duke of York title, the King’s brother had set alarm bells ringing because of his repeated meetings with the suspected spy Yang Tengbo, who was banned from the UK in 2023.
Government ministers were also warned by the security services of concerns that the 65-year-old Prince could be endangering national security by meeting suspected spies as he promoted a now-defunct charity.
Last week, The Telegraph disclosed that the Prince had held at least three meetings with the Chinese official at the centre of the collapsed trial of two suspected British spies working for Beijing.
One highly placed source said that “absolutely there were concerns” about the Prince’s activities from the security services in the years before Mr Yang was banned from the UK, which were raised with Cabinet ministers.
Other sources familiar with conversations in government at the relevant times confirmed that concerns were raised by Britain’s spy agencies that the Prince was potentially putting national security at risk through his relationships with Chinese individuals.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.telegraph.co.uk ’
