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 British 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 United Kingdom 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 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.
While Downing Street has insisted ministers had nothing to do with the Prince relinquishing his titles last week, the Prime Minister is now facing mounting calls to pass a law that would strip the Prince of his dukedom.
Last week, the Prince gave up his Duke of York title, his knighthood and other honours after accepting that media scrutiny of him was distracting from the work of the Royal family.
He legally retains his dukedom, which can only be removed by an act of Parliament. A growing number of MPs now support that course of action.
As well as fresh revelations about his meetings with suspected Chinese agents, emails have emerged which show the Prince lied about cutting off contact with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted paedophile.
The Prince became close to Yang, who set up a consultancy firm called Hampton Group International in the UK, after Yang helped him to found a Chinese branch of his Pitch@Palace charity, which helped entrepreneurs to find funding, and has since been wound up.
The Prince invited him to Buckingham Palace, St James’ Palace and Windsor Castle in 2020.
Then in 2021, he was stopped at the UK border under powers to investigate suspected “hostile activity” and surrendered his mobile phone, which contained documents relating to the Prince.
One of them, titled “main talking points” for a call with the Prince, stated that Andrew was in a “desperate situation and will grab on to anything”.
In 2023, the then home secretary Suella Braverman barred Yang from entering Britain because he was considered to have carried out “covert and deceptive activity” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.
Yang appealed the decision but it was upheld by judges, who said the Prince could have been made “vulnerable” by his association with him.
The Duke, who had given up his official role as a trade envoy in 2011, said via a statement from his office at the time that “nothing of a sensitive nature was ever discussed” between them and that he had cut off contact with Yang after concerns were raised by the Government. Yang has always denied spying.
Prince Andrew’s connections to an alleged Chinese spymaster were exposed by the Telegraph last week.
Cai Qi, one of the most senior members of the Chinese Communist Party, met the Prince in London and Beijing in 2018 and 2019, when Cai praised the Prince’s work on Pitch@Palace.
Cai is understood to have been the final recipient of sensitive information allegedly passed to China by Christopher Cash, the former parliamentary aide, and his friend Christopher Berry, who deny the allegations.
The King is understood to have made it clear to the Prince that fresh revelations this month about his friendship with Epstein, and about his links to China, meant he had reached a “tipping point” and told him to give up his title, five years after Andrew stepped down from royal duties.
Separately, the Metropolitan Police has said it is “actively looking into” allegations that the Prince tried to use his police bodyguard to smear Virginia Giuffre, his teenage sex abuse accuser.
A Buckingham Palace source said the new allegations were of “very serious and grave concern”.
“The latest allegations should be examined in the appropriate way as the Met have made clear they are doing.”
Some MPs believe the Prince must now have his dukedom legally removed.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader in Westminster, said: “If an act of Parliament is required to strip the likes of Peter Mandelson and Prince Andrew of their titles, then there can be no justification from this Labour Government as to why that is not immediately happening.”
Rachael Maskell, the York Central MP who was elected under Labour last year but is currently without her party whip, said she was personally considering bringing a Bill.
She said she was “minded” to bring a Removal of Titles Bill, which would give the monarch or Parliament the power to revoke honours.
The Buckingham Palace website was updated today to remove Prince Andrew’s Duke of York title.
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