Paperwork on Prince Andrew’s business dealings ‘has vanished’ amid links to ‘Chinese spy’, author claims
PAPERWORK on Prince Andrew’s business dealings “has vanished”, an author has claimed.
The Duke of York yesterday said he “ceased all contact” with the businessman accused of being a Chinese spy when concerns were first raised about him.
It comes after the royal family reportedly took further steps over the summer to distance themselves from the disgraced duke.
The King is said to have axed his £1million annual “living allowance” and the security Charles had been privately funding for Andrew’s home.
Now Andrew Lownie, who is writing a biography of the Duke and Sarah, Duchess of York, has said information “has vanished”.
He claimed several of his requests to Whitehall departments about Prince Andrew’s past business dealings have been rejected.
“I used to write about the intelligence services, and I found that was a lot easier, a lot more open and transparent than the Royal Family,” he told Sky News.
“I have tried, through the Freedom Information Act, to get access to any of the paperwork for Andrew, a special representative between 2001 and 2011 when he was taxpayer-funded, a public servant.
“It’s like playing whack-a-mole. It’s real Yes Minister stuff, anything to avoid releasing this information.”
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “The department has complied with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act and Public Records Act and maintains that information has been withheld in accordance with the acts.
“This includes an ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) decision notice which outlined that the commissioner did not need to take any further steps.”
The Foreign Office said: “The FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) takes its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act very seriously.”
Spy invited to Palace
It has also been reported that he businessman accused of being a Chinese spy was invited to Buckingham Palace by Prince Andrew.
The man – who was banned from Britain by the Government on national security grounds – visited Buckingham Palace twice.
He also entered St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle at the invitation of Prince Andrew, according to The Times.
Andrew met the individual through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”, a statement from his office said.
'There is no way back for Prince Andrew', claims PR guru
PRINCE Andrew’s reputation is damaged beyond repair and he will never be able to engineer a return to public life, according to one of Britain’s top PR gurus.
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede, who runs East of Eden PR agency, called the shamed royal “deluded” for thinking he could ever return to royal duties and urged him to give up and ‘enjoy his life’ in exile.
It follows the release of Scoop – a Netflix movie based on the 2019 interview he gave to Newsnight.
Nick said: “There is no way back for him.
“I think you know this perpetual idea that he could still be back. Nobody cares. He hasn’t got fans.
“There’s nobody out there who’s going ‘We want to see Prince Andrew’, not one single person. I think he has to realise that. But I think it’s going to take a long, long time for him to actually understand. It’s very deluded.
“In my opinion, the best thing that he could do is just enjoy his life. He’s got gorgeous daughters. He has a great relationship with Fergie, he has a lovely house.
“Just live a quiet life.”
Reflecting on the interview five years ago – the fallout of which saw Andrew step back from royal duties “for the foreseeable future” – Nick compared the fallout to Frost vs Nixon and said he would have urged him not to do it.
He said: “If I had been advising him, I would say, go quiet, be quiet, just go to ground. You know you’re a prince. Enjoy the life that you lead, but do not open this can of worms, because that’s what it is.
“There was no admission that a relationship with somebody like Epstein was terribly toxic. There was no idea that there were loads of victims of trafficking whose lives were completely ruined by Epstein. He didn’t seem to think that the association he had with that man was anything but positive.
“I think his worst gaffe was obviously being in that interview and agreeing to it in the first place, for not realising that he’s actually going to be interviewed by a very, very good journalist who is going to ask him questions which he might not like.
“But I think what this has done is really shown how archaic Prince Andrew is in his opinions and thoughts.
“Read the room. He’s never read a room at all.”
The businessman brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after then-home secretary Suella Braverman said he should be excluded from the UK in March 2023.
Several newspapers have reported that the King has been briefed about his brother’s links to the alleged spy.
Judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed the man – known only as H6 – had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”.
They also said H6 had downplayed his relationship with the Chinese state, which combined with his relationship with Andrew, 64, represented a threat to national security.
At a hearing in July, the specialist tribunal heard the businessman was told by an adviser to Andrew that he could act on the duke’s behalf when dealing with potential investors in China, and that H6 had been invited to Andrew’s birthday party in 2020.
A letter referencing the birthday party from the adviser, Dominic Hampshire, was discovered on H6’s devices when he was stopped at a port in November 2021.
In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon, dismissed the challenge.