Prince
Andrew adviser’s letter to alleged China spy reveals closeness of ties
Two-page
document praises loyalty of Yang Tengbo and says he is ‘at very top of tree’
within Duke of York’s network
Dan Sabbagh
Defence and security editor
Fri 31 Jan
2025 17.07 GMT
The full
text of a gushing letter written by Prince Andrew’s adviser to alleged Chinese
spy Yang Tengbo reveals how intimate the relationship between the two had
become in the aftermath of the prince’s disastrous 2019 interview with the BBC.
Extracts
from the correspondence were quoted in a judgment upholding a decision to
exclude Yang from the UK last month, but the two-page letter written by Dominic
Hampshire at the end of March 2020 is eye-catching for its tone.
The letter
had been relied on by the Home Office to demonstrate that Tengbo was able to
generate relationships between prominent UK figures and Chinese officials.
Hampshire, a
senior adviser to the Duke of York, complains in the letter – subsequently
recovered by police from Yang’s laptop – that he had “watched numerous people
disappear from his [the Duke’s] network” and that the prince had been
surrounded by “red carpet chasers”.
But he goes
on to to praise Yang as being one of “a very small number” of people previously
connected to Andrew who had continued “to show total support and loyalty,” amid
fierce criticism in the wake of the 2019 interview of the prince’s friendship
with abuser Jeffrey Epstein.
The letter
is among dozens of documents released by the immigration court on Friday, and
has already been partially quoted in its judgment last month. Hampshire had
assured Yang “you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would
like to be on”.
The prince’s
aide goes on to write that Yang was fortunate to attend a celebration of
Andrew’s 60th birthday at Windsor the month before, which had been scaled down
at the Queen’s request after he struggled to answer questions from the BBC’s
Emily Maitlis over his friendship with Epstein.
“I also hope
you fully understand what your invitation to his birthday party meant; this was
not an engagement or an exclusive dinner. This was strictly his and his
family’s personal life that very, very few people have the privilege to ever be
part of,” Hampshire wrote.
“Moreover,
remember that you were originally invited to their house and therefore on the
much smaller original guest list. Despite press reports to the contrary, I know
for a fact that there were very few people who were not able to make it.”
In the 2019
interview with the BBC, Andrew had said he cut off contact with Epstein in
December 2010, but emails disclosed in a separate legal action have now
revealed they were still exchanging messages in late February 2011.
Epstein
suggested the Duke might see banker Jes Staley, and after a back and forth,
Andrew wrote: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon.”
Yang, a
Chinese-born entrepreneur who had lived in the UK, was excluded from the UK by
then home secretary, Suella Braverman, in March 2023 on the advice of MI5, and
the court concluded that she “was entitled to conclude that the applicant
represented a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom”.
He maintains
the allegations against him are “entirely unfounded”. On Friday, he said he was
seeking permission to appeal against the court’s decision in a statement.
A witness
statement from Yang provided to the immigration court said that he first met
Hampshire after he had been sat next to Andrew during a VIP dinner hosted by
Buckingham Palace in October 2019 and he was advised by the prince to contact
him. “The duke wrote Dominic’s number down on a piece of paper,” Yang said.
Hampshire’s
letter describes how rapidly their relationship developed after meeting at the
Corinthia hotel in London on 23 October. “Immediately, I learned of a whole new
level of obsessive confidentiality and a slightly different way of
communicating,” a sentence partly quoted in the court’s judgment.
“We have
dealt with the aftermath of a hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful television
interview; we have wisely navigated our way around former private secretaries
and we have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t
completely trust,” he added, using language that has been partly quoted by the
court.
Hampshire, a
former Scots guard and long-time friend and fixer for the duke, heaps praise on
Yang’s punctuality: “You bring a completely new level to timekeeping – I aim to
be at every meeting at least 15 minutes before it starts and without exception,
you are already there!”.
The purpose
of the letter, Hampshire says, is “a personal note from me to you” and
apologises for its length, which he says is “very British”. It nevertheless
emphasises the closeness of their relationship: “After this short amount of
time, I feel an unusual bond of friendship, trust, support and loyalty.”
Seven months
later, another letter from Hampshire says that Yang is authorised to act on
behalf of an investment scheme called the Eurasian fund in China. It says he
has the authority to act on behalf of Andrew “in engagements with potential
partners and investors in China” but also asks that “this relationship remains
confidential”.
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