Prince Andrew’s top aide ‘told Chinese spy’ royal’s infamous Newsnight interview was ‘ill-advised’

Prince Andrew’s senior aide Dominic Hampshire is said to have told an alleged Chinese spy with links to the Duke of York that his car crash Newsnight interview had been a disaster

Prince Andrew’s senior aide privately admitted that his car crash BBC Newsnight interview had been “hugely ill-advised” to an alleged Chinese spy, according to court documents.

It was more than five years ago that Emily Maitlis grilled the disgraced Duke of York on his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. But the chat ended up becoming a car crash and is considered the catalyst for the downfall of Andrew, who was forced to step down from royal life and has now been stripped of his military affiliations and patronages.

So far, Andrew has not talked about the interview but new court documents from the immigration case of alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who also had an association with the royal, have shown that those working for the Duke thought it was a disaster.

Douments seen by The Times show that Dominic Hampshire, Andrew’s senior advisor, wrote to Mr Yang about Andrew’s former Pitch@Palace business initiative and said: “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.”

It comes after Mr Yang previously 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. Tribunal judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed Mr Yang had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”.

The former civil servant, who was known as H6 during the legal battle until his anonymity was lifted in December, became a “close” confidant of the Duke of York and has also been pictured with senior politicians including Lord David Cameron and Baroness Theresa May.

The SIAC released documents related to Mr Yang’s case today, with the request not opposed by the businessman. 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.

After their association became known last month, Andrew decided to step back from traditional royal Christmas celebrations. The release of the court documents comes as separate documents appear to show that Andrew had been in touch with Epstein for longer than he admitted.

The royal told Epstein to “keep in close touch” in an email, with the claim coming amid years of scrutiny being placed on Epstein’s relationship with the Duke of York. Andrew previously told the BBC that he broke off his friendship with the sex offender in December 2010 in his Newsnight interview.

The new claim was made by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in court documents for a legal battle against former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley. Mr Staley is appealing against a finding by the watchdog that he gave a misleading account of the nature of his relationship with Epstein, and denies doing so.

In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight, Andrew told Emily Maitlis: “I ceased contact with him (Epstein) after I was aware that he was under investigation and that was later in 2006 and I wasn’t in touch with him again until 2010.” He later said that in December 2010: “I had to show leadership and I had to go and see him and I had to tell him, ‘That’s it’.”