Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview ‘ill advised’, aide told alleged spy

A senior aide to Prince Andrew privately admitted to an alleged Chinese spy that the duke’s BBC Newsnight interview had been “ill advised”, court documents show.

Files reveal how the prince’s aide Dominic Hampshire thanked Yang Tengbo for standing by the embattled duke in the months after he sought to explain on TV his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Last month a court rejected Mr Yang’s appeal against being banned from the UK, after an intelligence assessment that he could be secretly working for the Chinese state. Mr Yang has denied all wrongdoing.

It comes after separate court documents revealed the prince appeared to have been in touch with Epstein for longer than he had previously admitted.

An email from a “member of the British Royal Family”, believed to be Prince Andrew, was sent to Epstein in February 2011, court documents showed on Friday. In 2019, the duke had told Newsnight that he had not seen or spoken to Epstein since December 2010.

In the case related to Mr Yang, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) previously said he had won an “unusual degree of trust” from the royal.

Mr Yang came to study in UK in 2002 and later set up a series of China-related travel and business consultancy firms.

He met the Duke of York in 2014 and later took on a role in the China-based version of Prince Andrew’s “Pitch@Palace” events, in which entrepreneurs sell their ideas to investors.

Documents disclosed to the BBC and other media outlets from the Siac case now show that friendship deepened in the wake of the November 2019 Newsnight interview, in which the duke was questioned over his relationship with Epstein, and denied assaulting Virginia Giuffre.

Mr Yang told the court “everything changed” after the interview, with international partners withdrawing or distancing themselves from Pitch@Palace.

He said he agreed to continue to support the events “at significant risk for me and my business reputationally” due to his admiration and respect for the duke, and a level of “loyalty and commitment” he felt.

Writing in March 2020, Prince Andrew’s senior aide Dominic Hampshire told Mr Yang how much his “principal” appreciated the fact that he had stood by him.

“We have dealt with the aftermath of a hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful television interview,” wrote Mr Hampshire on official Buckingham Palace notepaper.

“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.”

Mr Hampshire added that “in what originally seemed like a lost cause” Mr Yang had “somehow to not only salvage but maintain and then incredibly, enhance the reputation of my principal in China”.

He continued: “Under your guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house of Windsor.

“We orchestrated a very powerful verbal message of support to China at a Chinese New Year’s dinner and between the three of us, we have written, amended and then always agreed a number of letters at the highest level possible.”

Court documents from the Mr Yang case show Mr Hampshire said that since the Newsnight interview “numerous people” had shunned the prince because they had been “simply not true to their word or they are ‘red carpet chasers’.”

“I could list several high-profile and well-known names who are no longer around us and there are a very small number left – you remain as one of those and you continue to show total support and loyalty.”

He also sought to underline how close Mr Yang was to the duke because he had been invited to his 60th birthday dinner that year.

“This was strictly his and his family’s personal life that very, very few people have the privilege to ever be part of,” Mr Hampshire wrote.

He said a “solid and unbreakable base” had been formed “with all the respective parts in place for an extremely powerful (perhaps unparalleled) entity at the highest level possible”.

Police found the letter on Mr Yang’s phone when it was examined under counter-espionage powers.

A second letter from Mr Hampshire, sent in October 2020, confirmed to the businessman that he was authorised to represent Prince Andrew in China in relation to the Eurasia Fund, a financial initiative.

The aide stressed in the letter that any deals involving the duke must comply with British law and best practices.

But other material found on the phone led then Home Secretary Suella Braverman to ban Mr Yang from the UK in 2023. The police and MI5 suspected Mr Yang might be part of a Chinese Communist Party “elite capture” operation to exert influence on the prince.

Security experts say “elite capture” is a well-documented tactic used by the Chinese state to exert influence on people at the top of British life such as politicians, academics and business leaders.

Mr Yang continues to deny wrongdoing and is seeking to appeal his UK ban.

The court papers disclosed on Friday revealed that Mr Yang said all his meetings with the duke had occurred with the knowledge of Buckingham Palace – and all he had wanted to do was improve relations between the UK and China.

Mr Yang said that while he had once been a member of the Chinese Communist Party he had never been directed to interfere in British interests.

In a statement issued as the documents were released, he said: “I reiterate that the allegations against me are entirely unfounded.

“I am unable to know all the allegations and evidence against me. I have followed that process in good faith and provided full disclosure of all my business and personal affairs.”

Mr Yang said that the UK’s position on China was “inconsistent and erratic” and he had been the victim of a “media circus”.

In the Newsnight interview, the prince said he had not seen or spoken to Epstein since December 2010, when he visited the financier’s home in New York. The duke said this meeting was to end their relationship.

However, documents from a separate court case released on Friday suggested they were in touch via email in February 2011.

The case involves the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and banker Jes Staley, who was banned from senior positions after he mischaracterised his relationship with Epstein.

Staley is appealing against the FCA, but the financial watchdog’s evidence about Staley’s contact with Epstein also contains emails relating to a “member of the British Royal Family”, showing what seem to be friendly and familiar exchanges.

According to the court documents, on 27 February 2011, Epstein emailed: “jes staley will be in London on next tue afternoon, if you have time,” in messages first reported by business news agency Bloomberg.

There was a reply from the “member of the British Royal Family” with a question: “Jes is coming on 1st March or next week?”

The court documents said there was a “discussion of press articles” and then the message: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”

Prince Andrew is believed to have first met Epstein in 1999, with the financier attending parties on royal estates between 2000 and 2006.

In 2008, Epstein was convicted in the US for procuring a minor for prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In July 2019, Epstein was arrested on charges of the sex trafficking of minors. He died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial.

In November that year, Prince Andrew was interviewed by Newsnight and in the subsequent fallout stepped down from royal duties.

This has been another bad day for Prince Andrew.

With some spectacular understatement, his close aide has been revealed as telling an alleged Chinese spy that the prince’s appearance on Newsnight had been “unsuccessful”.

That could sum up much of the following years, as he’s become an increasingly isolated figure, no longer a working royal.

The King, his brother, has cut him off financially, and there has been such pressure on him to move out of his Windsor mansion that it has been called the Siege of Royal Lodge.

The latest claims about his links to Jeffrey Epstein and his Chinese business connections will add to questions about his judgement.

Buckingham Palace will once again be alarmed by details such as the claim to the alleged spy that they had “found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out the house in Windsor”.

The Duke of York’s office has been contacted for comment.

Additional reporting by Ian Aikman