Last week, we learned that a Chinese spy had been banned from entering the UK after MI5 discovered an array of incriminating material on the guy’s phone. What made the situation into international news is the fact that the accused spy was a close associate of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. They were so close, Andrew and his people authorized the alleged spy to act on Andrew’s behalf in business dealings in China. They were so close, the alleged spy was apparently advising Andrew and his staff on ways to get around palace security. What’s especially crazy about this situation is that the bulk of the incriminating stories about Andrew’s relationship with the spy happened after Andrew’s Newsnight interview in 2019, meaning: it happened after Andrew “stepped down” as a working royal. Chinese intelligence kept pursuing Andrew and apparently used him as some kind of asset/useful idiot. As such, the alleged spy got invitations to Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace, Windsor Castle and Royal Lodge. LOL.
An alleged Chinese spy who has been banned from Britain on national security grounds entered Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle at the invitation of Prince Andrew. The Chinese businessman, 50, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was invited into Buckingham Palace twice. He also attended a function at St James’s Palace and an event at Windsor Castle. On another occasion, the alleged spy was invited as a guest to the Duke of York’s birthday party at Royal Lodge, Andrew’s 30-bedroom home on the Windsor estate.
The Chinese businessman, who was previously not known to be a security risk, was barred from entering the UK when he was stopped at the border under counterterrorism laws in 2021. Details of his connection to the royal family emerged in a hearing on Thursday, in which he tried and failed to get the ban overturned. The alleged spy is also believed to have met George Osborne, the former chancellor.
A statement from the duke’s office last night asserted that Andrew had “ceased all contact” with the businessman. The announcement read: “The Duke of York followed advice from His Majesty’s Government and ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised. The duke met the individual through official channels, with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed. He is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security.”
A palace source confirmed that the King had been briefed “through the appropriate channels” about his brother’s links to the alleged spy. The fact that Andrew was so close to someone who is facing accusations of espionage has raised questions about what sort of intelligence might have been sought from the duke.
“…Has raised questions about what sort of intelligence might have been sought from the duke.” That can be read in so many ways, it’s kind of a brilliant British burn. While Andrew knows a lot of royal secrets and he has plenty of compromising personal secrets, it’s not like Andrew knows the launch codes (hopefully). It’s not like he can sell anything but access to himself, his family and maybe a handful of politicians. And it sounds like that’s exactly what he did, sell access, and he got this alleged spy into some of the most elite spaces in the kingdom. How much did China give Andrew for all of this access? That’s the question, isn’t it.
Chinese money given to the Duke of York is being investigated by the security services, The Telegraph can disclose. Prince Andrew’s business venture is understood to have received money from Chinese donors with links to an alleged Communist party spy. The case raises serious questions for the Duke over how he funds a lavish lifestyle that includes the upkeep on Royal Lodge, his 30-room home at Windsor, and his own private security.
The Telegraph can disclose that Buckingham Palace has no way of scrutinising the Duke’s finances, including the money used for the upkeep of Royal Lodge, which is owned by the Crown Estate. Sources said the palace had “no power, authority or legal right” to do so and that all palace officials could do was seek assurances that the Duke’s money was “legitimately earned”.
It can also be revealed that the King was made aware of the MI5 investigation into his brother and his links to the alleged Chinese agent before the bombshell judgment which exposed their friendship.
I genuinely wonder if Andrew will be allowed on the Christmas church-walk this year. It definitely feels like… I don’t know, maybe Charles is giving Andrew some payback after all of the bullsh-t with Royal Lodge? It’s not that simple, I know, but Buckingham Palace certainly isn’t lifting a finger to help him, even if BP is compromised by the association too. As I said, it’s wild that so much of this happened post-Newsnight interview, but it’s further evidence that Andrew didn’t really stop scheming back then. He was still working various angles, he was still selling access, he was still being enabled by his mother.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
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- Windsor, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Andrew seen taking a ride on his horse in Windsor, England Pictured: Prince Andrew BACKGRID USA 29 OCTOBER 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Windsor, UNITED KINGDOM – The disgraced Prince Andrew takes a ride on his horse accompanied by grooms in Windsor, England. Pictured: Prince Andrew BACKGRID USA 26 NOVEMBER 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Windsor, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Andrew pictured taking advantage of the warm spring weather by enjoying a horse ride before driving out of Windsor Castle. Pictured: Prince Andrew BACKGRID USA 30 MARCH 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Royals Attend Christmas Day Service At St Mary Magdalene Church In Sandringham Featuring: Prince Andrew Where: Norfolk, England, United Kingdom When: 25 Dec 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- The Duke of Yorkat the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey, London. Featuring: Prince Andrew, The Duke of York Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duke of York departs Westminster Abbey, London, following the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Featuring: Prince Andrew, The Duke of York Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
“…and that all palace officials could do was seek assurances that the Duke’s money was “legitimately earned”
LOL. Andrew and ‘legitimately earned’ in the same sentence.
Yes it is suspicious how Andrew raised the funds to stay in the Royal Lodge isn’t it? I hope the legitimately powerful politicians in the UK know to stay well away from Andrew by now.
Wow the pedo sounds an awful lot like the orange stain we have over here!! Inviting spies over for events. Maybe someone should check Royal lodge’s bathrooms for any state secrets being hidden there. Guess we know where his “legally gotten “ money is coming
from.
So many parallels…useful idiots, wives who don’t bother to show up to anything, staff full of human traffickers/sexual predators.
What I find so fascinating by this revelation is that no one bothers to square the circle. The SAME palace that wanted to review Harry and Meghan’s contracts as *private individuals* isn’t able to determine where Prince Andrew’s income comes from??? The insane glaring inconsistency here is just left completely uncommented upon. And it demonstrates the degree to which the Royal Rota are NOT journalists at all but just mouthpieces who blatantly lie with impunity. How any “royal expert” who has been on record claiming all types of nonsense about H&M’s contracts and business dealings has any credibility is such a massive stain on the entirety of the UK’s bizarre Royal media coverage. Total dereliction of journalistic ethics.
While the RR was frothing at the mouth about Netflix “body mics” at Royal events/residences, Prince Andrew was shepherding around a Chinese spy!! My god, the way H&M are used as distractions from the real rot and security issues, just insane.
What she said!
BRF – corrupt to the core after all, it seems.
Yet another good reason behind H and M changing their status and address!
They are all into shady deals. I assume the Chinese paid in crypto, rather than shopping bags full of cash.
Huh. That may be all palace officials could do but I bet MI5 can do more. They’re investigating the guy, right? Wouldn’t that mean getting a warrant for Andrew’s finances? Or will they defer to royalty? Again.
The same people who wanted to look over the Netflix contract
I’m sure Andrew thought swapping the Woking Pizza Express for a Chinese takeaway in… maybe Slough might be a good idea after that Newsnight interview.
Seriously, how stupid, dumb, unintelligent are *all* of these Windsors?
And no one around to tell Paedrew it would be better if he didn’t even think about doing all that? Paedrew, who can’t even close his own curtains, never devised this scheme all on his own.
>>Seriously, how stupid, dumb, unintelligent are *all* of these Windsors? <<
Is that a rhetorical question? lol
The real question is when did the Palace find out that Andrew’s friend was a spy? After year of the British press and royalists calling Harry a traitor it would seem Andrew was the actual traitor and with all that I wouldn’t be surprised if Andrew was still on the Christmas walk this year.
Agree. He will be in the Christmas parade! Only so Charles can say, “look who’s here and you’re not” to Harry.
Andrew is such a gentleman not a traitor at all
This has been exploding (good!). KC and family were informed of Andrew’s latest scandal in the making. In this article from The Guardian, Andrew Lownie (who is writing a book about Andrew et al) argues that only having a mere £20 thousand a year leads to Andrew’s issues. (Which–he’s literally gotten much more than that his whole life: it’s a stupid argument. He hasn’t learned to live within his means or budget for the future.) However, the really interesting tidbit is that Lownie states THAT ANDREW ISN’T THE ONLY ROYAL DOING THIS: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/14/advice-ignored-by-ministers-could-have-blocked-prince-andrew-spy
KC initially came out sating he’d cut his brother off (after this was known?), and then this year Andrew suddenly was able to score funds to pay for Royal Lodge. KC changed his mind and stated that, well, like a secret double agent he actually WAS funding Andrew. Then this story about Chinese influence became public. No wonder WanK didn’t want him near their/her Xmas pagent! However, onviously, the royals are able to hide their dealings to a certain extent and knowing them can get nefarious types into influential spaces or contact with influential people. Which royals has Andrew Lownie been referring to?
Sure seems like the entire BRF is a liability to the security and safety of the country, it’s about time that the government does something about it. Laws need to be changed because it looks like that family has been selling out their subjects for bags of cash for decades.
Lownie only refers to other financial scandals not spy ones. We know about many of them though I’m sure Tgere are others. He states this is proof they can’t police themselves.
Sources said the palace had “no power, authority or legal right” to scrutinize Prince Andrew’s finance.
Who has the right then? The Police?
That’s what I’m thinking. MI5 would have the authority, but would they have the backbone?
Oh, please. Palace officials might not have the authority to investigate Andrew’s finances, but MI5 does, the police do, and so do other government agencies. They would start investigating as soon as the spy was found out and then they’d tell BP.
As for what secrets could Andrew reveal, he doesn’t have to know anything or reveal anything. His purpose was to get the spy into the system.
1) seems China and Russia are well aware just how easy it is to manipulate dumb, entitled, greedy, power hungry white men who are used to wealth but bad with money – and they have all become liabilities for their countries (see also DT and most of the GOP at this point). Governments need to take this threat more seriously.
2) Why is everyone treating a grown ass adult who should know better like he is just a little boy whose bully buddies used him? Andrew is, at best, an accomplice to a spy; at worst a spy himself, given he (and Charles too, never forget his briefcases of cash) has repeatedly taken money from foreign governments to provide access to the BRF – and through them, access to other high level British society and government. Being too naive to know the real reason why they’d want to finance him should no longer (or ever) be an adequate excuse.
Investigate and prosecute accordingly, stop acting like poor lil’ Andrew can’t possibly be held accountable for his decisions!
China doesn’t care about political parties. Diane Feinstein had a Chinese spy on her payroll for 20 years.
But yes, Andrew is just plain bad. He has a long history of dubious, if not criminal, behavior. He is at fault for that behavior and Elizabeth is at fault for covering for him and treating him like a baby.
He’d potentially know compromising personal information.
Sure, that’s possible, but compromising personal information is still just a way to get in the door. My point is that Andrew’s asset isn’t that he knows state secrets; it’s that he can get people in the door.
Sorry, but this is on Charles. The RF finances are set up so that the monarch is supposed to pay the expenses of the rest of the family. Chuck doesn’t get to wiggle out of that by just deciding not to do it in the name of “economy.” Andrew and Sarah are walking nightmares, but again, they are Charles’s problem to solve, not throw to the wolves. Because they will do what they have to to survive and that will be far, far worse than Charles just paying their decking expenses.
Sure, but there’s a difference between surviving and living high on the hog. Andrew and Sarah have £ signs in their eyes, and seemingly no amount of public embarrassment (her being in debt, his very bad taste in “associates”) doesn’t seem to clear their vision.
I’d say Andrew is a very poor judge of character, but he only sees the bank balance.
@Kristen, the royals lifestyle is living “high on the hog” to us mere mortals but it might be barely “surviving” to them.
@Kristen from MA, when Camilla was in debt, Charles paid all of it. Charles has all the money because he is the first born. He can pay Andrew & Fergie enough, so they don’t go outside to look for more and still be one of the richest men in the world. He just doesn’t want to share.
Andrew isn’t a poor judge of character. He’s a poor character who knows how to attract others of poor character.
Umm….I wonder how long it will take them to blame Meghan? Or at the very least…..start mentioning the “bullying” claims again?
Meghan cooked a Chinese dish Harry hadn’t had before and he really liked it. He mentioned how good it was to his uncle who decided to get in bed with a Chinese spy. Obviously.
That Chinese spy was sent by Meghan to destroy the monarchy, don’t you know?
Whew, Andrew is a problem. Was Charles blindsided by this or did he arrange for this to come out? I can’t tell. And yet he gets a Christmas invite while the rota crow that Harry’s the one that can’t be trusted. Guess as long as Andrew doesn’t spill RF secrets they consider him trustable. Ew.
Is this the same BP who were going to “scrutinize” Meghan and Harry’s Netflix contracts? But they can’t find the same energy for Andrew?
I’ve been saying for years that if the institution doesn’t provide financial support for Andrew, that he has plenty of dodgy friends who will. And once again the institution’s short-sightedness has come back to bite them on the throne.
And here’s the York family at the Chinese Embassy, in Feb 2020, to help celebrate the lunar New Year.
https://www.celebitchy.com/651854/the_queen_wants_prince_andrew_beatrice_eugenie_to_pick_up_more_royal_work/
There’s nothing wrong with meeting and socializing with Chinese officials. It’s an important country and there need to be diplomatic relations. But bringing spies into the house and collecting money for it is a whole different thing.
The House of Windsor, UK branch, has been compromised, period. No way Charles didn’t know what Andrew’s been up to, otherwise he would have been cut off and bounced out of Royal Lodge long ago. William doesn’t have clean hands here; as the heir he would have in the knowlegde loop and Andrew is HIS problem when he becomes king. Blocking him to attend Kate’s Xmas concert is not going to matter to MI5. The Sussexes are far away from this mess; it was so smart of them to leave.
If this is the story that somehow takes him down and not the human trafficking and pedophilia, I’m going to be really mad.
So the best part of this article is the recommendation for transparency:
““It is time the exemptions afforded them in the Freedom of Information Act be removed, that royal wills be made public and a register of royal interests be set up.
“We also need some sort of investigation into Andrew’s decade as special representative, his use of Pitch@Palace … and exactly how he has afforded his luxurious lifestyle over the last 20 years if trust in the monarchy is to continue.” (Andrew Lownie, the person attempting to write a book on Prince Andrew).
How many times does Parliament have to get hit over the head with this?
This family is a bloody disgrace to the nation and an international embarrassment. #abolishthemonarchy
Next thing you’ll know we’ll be getting stories about how the Chinese spy got THISCLOSE to the Cambridge kids. The Wales kids. Whatever. Considering those tractor thieves got a whole mile close to them while they slept. But a Chinese spy IN Windsor Castle? What dopes.