The royal controversy of the past week has been “Prince Andrew was super-friendly with a guy who turned out to be a Chinese spy.” All I can say about that at this point is: Prince Andrew’s brand is very strong. If there’s an abuser, a rapist, a spy, a despot or an oligarch in a fifty-mile vicinity, you know that Andrew is going to offer access to that person while begging for money. On Monday, Andrew and Sarah Ferguson withdrew from their plan to stay at Wood Farm at Sandringham over the Christmas holiday. Meaning, they’ll likely stay at Royal Lodge for Christmas, while the Windsors stay at Sandringham. But it was an open question as to whether Andrew would still go to the pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace on Thursday. While it’s purely a family event, attendees are photographed in their cars, arriving at the palace. King Charles’s minions were publicly pressuring Andrew to drop out of that as well. Well, breaking news: Andrew will no longer attend tomorrow’s lunch.

The Duke of York has pulled out of tomorrow’s pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, MailOnline can reveal. After speaking to his ex-wife the Duchess of York, Prince Andrew has decided not to join 70 members of the Royal Family at the palace.

The Duke’s decision will be a relief to his brother King Charles III amid the ongoing furore over Andrew’s relationship with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo. It had been claimed Andrew was insisting on going to the lunch, telling friends ‘he should be there’, and that as it’s a family occasion, ‘why shouldn’t he go?’ And even as of last night, royal officials were still in the dark over his plans. But MailOnline understands Sarah has now persuaded him not to attend.

It comes after Andrew also agreed not to attend the Royal Family’s Christmas celebrations at Sandringham next week. Royal aides couldn’t hide their relief on Monday after it was revealed the Duke had decided to ‘do the decent thing’ and spare the King’s blushes by pulling out of the official festive celebrations and the walk to church.

However, each year the monarch also invites his large extended family – aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, husbands and wives – who don’t make the cut to Sandringham, to meet up for a big festive meal in London. Sources said as recently as yesterday that they still had ‘no idea’ whether the beleaguered royal would show up.

Privately, there are grave concerns about the depth of Andrew’s involvement with Mr Yang who, it has emerged, referred to himself as the ‘special envoy of Prince Andrew’ and was appointed by the royal as head of his Pitch@Palace China, a Dragons’ Den-style initiative from which the Duke took a cut.

[From The Daily Mail]

Someone said that 70-plus royals and royal-adjacents are coming to Thursday’s lunch. I’m just saying, it probably would have been pretty easy for Andrew to find a way to slip into Buckingham Palace unnoticed for the lunch, but I guess there was no appetite for that to happen in either direction. There’s a lot of talk about “Andrew will never be seen publicly with the Windsors again!” Sure, maybe. But that was going to happen anyway when William becomes king? I’m just saying, maybe Andrew’s threat to move to Bahrain isn’t such a bad idea.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.