The Duke of York has pulled out of the royal family’s traditional pre-Christmas lunch as he continues to be dogged by his links to an alleged Chinese spy.
Andrew has decided not to attend the gathering at Buckingham Palace on Thursday after speaking to his ex-wife and close friend Sarah, Duchess of York, according to a source.
The move is another embarrassing moment for the King’s brother, who has already withdrawn from joining senior royals at Sandringham for the festive period.
The Buckingham Palace lunch is a private event for senior royals and their wider family who will not be attending Christmas celebrations at Charles’s Sandringham home.
Earlier this week, it was revealed in a High Court hearing that alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who was banned from the UK, was said to have been a “close” confidant of Andrew.
Mr Yang, who was named after an anonymity order was lifted on Monday, has insisted it was “entirely untrue” to claim he was involved in espionage and that he has “done nothing wrong or unlawful”.
The businessman, previously referred to only as H6 in the legal case, was the founder-partner of the Chinese arm of the duke’s Pitch@Palace initiative, and twice visited Buckingham Palace in 2018 to meet with the late Queen’s second son.
He is also said to have entered St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle at Andrew’s invitation.
On Friday, the duke’s office said Andrew “ceased all contact” with the then-unnamed businessman when concerns were first raised about him.
Andrew met Mr Yang through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”, a statement said.
The duke, now 64, has disappeared from public life since stepping down from official duties in 2019 following the furore over his friendship with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew’s status as a member of the royal family was left in tatters three years later when the Queen stripped him of his honorary military roles, remaining royal patronages and he gave up his HRH style in a dramatic fallout from a US civil sex case brought against him.
The legal process ended when he paid millions to settle the civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met and who was trafficked by Epstein.
The duke no longer attends Trooping the Colour, Remembrance Sunday commemorations at the Cenotaph or the annual Commonwealth Day service.
But he was at the King’s coronation, and is still a member of the Order of the Garter, taking part in the senior order of chivalry’s annual service behind closed doors, but does not appear in the public procession.
Andrew carried on joining the royal family for Christmas Day, and last year walked from Sandringham House to church with the other royals – seen as symbolic of his gradual rehabilitation within the family but it remains to be seen if he will return to the fold.
