The Duke of York will not join the Royal Family for Christmas at Sandringham following the fallout from his involvement with an alleged Chinese spy.
Multiple reports state both Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, have decided to avoid the annual family gathering at the King’s private Norfolk residence.
It comes after Royal insiders urged Andrew to “do the decent thing” and maintain a low profile over the Christmas period to avoid causing further embarrassment to the King, the Telegraph reported.
They had suggested that he stay away from the family’s annual private lunch this week as well as the high profile walk to church from Sandringham House on Christmas Day, the newspaper reported.
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie had already planned to spend Christmas with their respective in-laws this year for the first time.
Andrew and Sarah are said to be preparing to spend December 25th together at Royal Lodge, the home they still share in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire.
It is not yet known whether the Duke will attend Charles’s traditional pre-Christmas lunch for the extended family on Thursday, which is expected to be held at Buckingham Palace.
It comes as alleged spy Yang Tengbo, who forged links with the duke and mixed with other British establishment figures, insisted he has “done nothing wrong or unlawful” as reporting restrictions that prevented him being named were lifted.
Mr Yang said it was “entirely untrue” to claim he was involved in espionage and said he was a victim of a “political climate” which had seen a rise in tensions between the UK and China.
Businessman Mr Yang became a “close” confidant of the royal’s and has also been pictured with senior politicians including Lord David Cameron and Baroness Theresa May.
In a statement after a High Court judge lifted the order granting him anonymity he said: “Due to the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere, I have asked my legal team to disclose my identity.
“I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.”
He was known in the legal case only as H6 until the anonymity order was lifted on Monday.
Mr Yang is listed as a director of Hampton Group International, a business consultancy which claims to act as a bridge between China and the rest of the world.
The 50-year-old worked as a junior civil servant in China before heading to the UK in 2002 to study and he was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2013.
Mr Yang – also known as Christopher Yang – was the founder-partner of Pitch@Palace China, part of an initiative by the Duke of York to support entrepreneurs.
He was first excluded from Britain by then-home secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, when the Home Office said he was believed to have carried out “covert and deceptive activity” for the Chinese Communist Party.
Judges at a specialist tribunal in London last week ruled Mrs Braverman had been “entitled to conclude” that he “represented a risk to the national security” after he launched an appeal against the decision.
Relations between the UK and China have improved since Sir Keir Starmer took office and in November he became the first prime minister to meet Xi Jinping since 2018.
But the Prime Minister acknowledged he was “concerned about the challenge that China poses”.
Two of the Commons’ most prominent critics of the Beijing administration warned about the extent of the activities of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the branch of the Chinese state Mr Yang is alleged to have links with.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “The reality for us is very simple – China is a very clear threat.”
Sir Iain also suggested the Labour Government’s approach to engaging with Beijing meant the UK was viewed as the “soft underbelly” of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance by partners the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Later in the House of Commons, he said: "Can I just say that Yang Tengbo, H6, was in fact not a lone wolf.
"He was one of some 40,000 members of the United Work Department which the Intelligence and Security Committee report last year said, and I quote - and known to Government - 'Had penetrated every sector of the UK economy, spying, stealing intellectual property, influencing and shaping our institutions'."
Former security minister Tom Tugendhat told BBC Breakfast: “I’m absolutely certain that there are members of the United Front Work Department who are active right now in attempting to influence journalism, academics, politics, and the whole lot. This is really the tip of the iceberg.
“So, the story, I can understand why it’s been about Prince Andrew, but it’s not really about Prince Andrew. It’s about the way the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to exert influence here in the United Kingdom.”
As he defended his strategy for dealing with China, the Prime Minister said: "Our approach is one of engagement, of co-operating where we need to co-operate, particularly on issues like climate change, to challenge where we must and where we should, particularly on issues like human rights, and to compete when it comes to trade.
"That's the strategic approach that we have set out as a UK Government."
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: "Where individuals pose a threat, as you would expect, the UK Government is absolutely committed to using the full range of powers available to disrupt them. I raised these issues when I was in Beijing a few weeks ago.
"This case does not exist, sadly, in a vacuum. The UK is in the most complex threat environment that we've seen for a very significant time, including terrorism and states - including China, Iran and Russia - that pose a threat to us."
