The suspected Chinese spy who became a close confidant of the Duke of York has met two former prime ministers, fuelling concern about Beijing’s penetration of the British establishment.
The alleged agent, who has been banned from Britain, met Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Baroness May of Maidenhead on separate occasions and kept pictures of the encounters on the desk of his London office.
The disclosures will add to concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s tactic of “elite capture”, in which senior figures in another country are targeted in an effort to promote its agenda.
The suspected agent, who can be identified only as “H6” for legal reasons, appears to have met Cameron at a reception in Downing Street. He met May with her husband, Sir Philip, at a black-tie event. He courted Prince Andrew over several years and entered “into business activities with him”.
It can be revealed that:
● Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, said he would table an urgent question in the Commons on Monday demanding answers from the government about how Andrew came to be compromised.
● Royal sources said that the King could now ban his brother from joining the rest of his family walking to church at Sandringham on Christmas Day.
The alleged infiltration emerged on Thursday when judges upheld the decision by Suella Braverman when she was home secretary to exclude H6 on national security grounds.
He is contesting that decision and denies being an agent of the Chinese state. However, the anonymity order protecting him may be lifted by a court as early as next week. MPs are also threatening to name him under parliamentary privilege.
It is unclear whether the alleged spy’s meetings with Cameron and May took place when either was in office.
Details of the meetings appeared in a foreign television profile of the man. There is no suggestion that May or Cameron know the spy personally.
A source close to Cameron said that he met thousands of people at hundreds of events during his ten and a half years leading the Conservative Party and had no further information about H6.
Theresa May enters No 10 for the first time as prime minister with her husband in 2016
ANDY RAIN/EPA
A spokeswoman for May said: “Baroness May and her husband, Sir Philip, are photographed at numerous events in any given year. As such, she doesn’t remember when or where this particular photograph was taken or the man in question.”
Andrew, however, built a personal and business relationship with H6 over at least eight years.
The alleged spy was stopped at an airport under counterterrorism powers in November 2021. Officers seized his phone, which contained detailed information about their relationship. In one message, Dominic Hampshire, an adviser to the duke, told H6 that he sat “at the very top of a tree” of Andrew’s confidants.
A Home Office minister suggested on Sunday that the alleged spy’s relationship with Andrew was a significant contributing factor to concerns about national security. Maria Eagle said the decision to ban the alleged agent was taken “especially with what he was doing in his friendship with Prince Andrew”.
She told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that spies routinely “establish friendships with people of influence that might then be useful later on”. She added: “They’re not short-termists. They can sometimes do this over many, many years, and therefore our security services are always very vigilant and keeping an eye on what’s going on.”
Eagle said that former prime ministers would be given advice by MI5 if a suspected agent they were monitoring was thought to pose a threat.
Invited to the Palace
Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, said police were now free to investigate whether someone in Prince Andrew’s position violated the terms of the National Security Act, which came into force in July last year, banning assistance to the agents of a foreign power — a definition which covers providing hospitality.
“Material assistance to a foreign intelligence service is now a very severe criminal offence,” Tugendhat said. “If you rent a house or pay a taxi firm, or host a dinner party for a Russian or Chinese or Iranian intelligence officer, that is a criminal offence.”
This weekend it emerged that Andrew invited the alleged spy to Buckingham Palace twice, to Windsor Castle and St James’s Palace, and to his 60th birthday party.
In their ruling, judges at the secretive Special Immigration Appeals Commission revealed that H6 was authorised to act on Andrew’s behalf in contacting potential partners and investors in China “which could be leveraged for political interference purposes by the Chinese state”.
Tugendhat said: “For any private citizen, this would raise questions that I’m sure the National Crime Agency would be interested to follow up.”
In a separate interview with GB News he said: “Prince Andrew’s been an idiot over many years.”
Eagle refused to say whether Andrew’s relationship with the alleged spy was an “embarrassment”, declining to discuss “internal issues with the royal family”.
Baroness Harman, a former deputy leader of the Labour Party and briefly leader of the opposition, said Britain had an “ignorance spot” about the threat and opportunities posed by China.
“That’s something, generally speaking, among parliamentarians, among government, among ordinary people — as well as the royal family — we need to up our game on that. And be more understanding of what’s going on in China and what their objectives might be, and what that might mean for us — for good or ill.”
The Duke of York at a Pitch@Palace event in Shenzhen in 2019. The alleged spy H6 is not in the photograph
XINHUA/ALAMY
Announcing his intention to force ministers to provide an explanation to parliament, Duncan Smith said: “The government needs to come forward and explain how this guy got away with what he was doing. Who was checking the people around Prince Andrew?
“As long as he remains a member of the royal family he should have all his contacts checked. This is yet another example of how far China has penetrated our establishment.”
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Baroness Hodge of Barking, the former chair of the Commons public accounts committee, told Sky News: “I want a royal family that is well funded. They’re a precious and valued institution in our society but going with that funding must come some accountability.”
Andrew, 64, says that he severed ties with the Chinese man as soon as he was warned. A statement from his office said: “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.”
Move to the Gulf?
But with his reputation in tatters again, three years after he was disgraced over his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, sources close to the government of the United Arab Emirates claimed Andrew is considering a permanent move to the Gulf, where his royal status would still confer a degree of respect.
Andrew met President Xi in Beijing in 2018
THOMAS PETER/POOL/GETTY IMAGES
Insiders say a visit by his daughter Princess Beatrice to Abu Dhabi last month, where she spoke at a conference on artificial intelligence and met the UAE’s minister of industry, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, was partly “cover for him”.
An informed figure in British politics said: “He’s looking at moving there permanently. He’s desperately trying to get something going to make some money.”
The Gulf links raise fresh questions about who is funding Andrew’s lifestyle after the King cut off his funds earlier this year. The duke has sought to keep his apartment in Royal Lodge in Windsor, which involves paying £3 million a year for his security.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said: “Wherever our intelligence and security agencies find cases which pose any kind of challenge or threat to UK national security … we will always stand ready to take action.”
On Sunday she acknowledged that threats from hostile states have become “much more complex”, including from China. She vowed to “take a very strong approach to our national security”, but added the relationship with Beijing is “complex” given Britain’s need for “economic co-operation”.
A move abroad for Andrew would be likely to alarm the Palace, but sources insist the King has “no control” over his brother. They stress that he has been stripped of his private office at Buckingham Palace, his HRH styling, military patronages and titles and the withdrawal of the King’s personal funding.
But sources close to the King said that Andrew’s visible presence at Sandringham on Christmas Day could be another sanction.
Since his accession in 2022, Charles has allowed Andrew to walk with the royal family from Sandringham House to St Mary Magdalene church for the traditional 11am service attended by the royals. The King is understood to have not yet made his decision about Christmas Day, and is likely to take the latest revelations into account.
After his fall from grace in November 2019, the duke joined the late Queen and the royal family for Christmas at Sandringham that year, but was not permitted to join them for the public walk to church.
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