A Chinese businessman, known only as H6, has lost an appeal over a 2023 ban from the UK over fears he could have compromised Prince Andrew and other prominent UK figures
A suspected Chinese spy who is believed to have close links to Prince Andrew was banned from the UK over fears he could compromise the royal.
The unnamed 50-year-old man was taken off a plane from Beijing to London in February 2023 and told Britain was to ban him from the country. Ex Home Secretary Suella Braverman made the decision as he had engaged in “covert and deceptive activity”.
In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon, dismissed an appeal against H6’s ban from entering the UK. Full details of the case have now been published.
The ruling revealed how Andrew struck up a relationship with H6 at the time of the Jeffrey Epstein trial, when Andrew was “under considerable pressure and could be expected to value (his) loyal support”. A document recovered from H6’s phone found talking points for a call between him and Andrew that said the prince “is in a desperate situation and will grab onto anything”.
Today’s hearing was told H6 had an “unusually close” relationship with the prince and was even invited to the Duke of York’s birthday in 2020. It heard how, in a briefing in 2022, it was claimed H6 created relationships between UK figures and Chinese officials for “political interference purposes”.
The judges said: “The Secretary of State was entitled to conclude that the applicant represented a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom, and that she was entitled to conclude his exclusion was justified and proportionate.
“He has settled status, a home and extensive business interests in the United Kingdom. He was regarded as a close confidant of the Duke.
“Whilst excluding the applicant would not necessarily halt his activities, it would significantly hinder them. Cultivating relationships with prominent UK individuals would logically be much more difficult if no meetings could take place in the UK.”
Judge Bourne added in the ruling that H6 had “won a significant degree… of trust from a senior member of the Royal Family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him.”
The judge added: “That occurred in a context where, as the contemporaneous documents record, the Duke was under considerable pressure and could be expected to value (H6’s) loyal support. It is obvious the pressures on the Duke could make him vulnerable to the misuse of that sort of influence.”
