A suspected Chinese spy who became a “close confidante” of the Duke of York was banned from the UK over national security fears that he could compromise the Royal.Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman took the decision to bar the businessman, who has close ties to the Chinese State, from the UK in March 2023.Full details of the case were published for the first time on Thursday, as the man - known only as H6 - lost an appeal against the decision.The explosive ruling revealed that Prince Andrew struck up an “unusually” close relationship with the man and agreed to business dealings, at a time when he was under intense international pressure over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.The businessman was allowed to act as a go-between for Prince Andrew, and was invited to the Royal’s 2020 birthday party.He was also suspected of circumventing the Duke’s Private Secretaries, and smuggling people unnoticed in and out of Andrew’s residence in Windsor.
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00:00Prince Andrew finds himself in the headlines again, but this time it's in relation to the
00:04company he's been keeping with a man suspected to be a Chinese spy, who has now been banned
00:10from being in the UK.
00:12The man, known only as H6, has been described as a close confidant of the Duke of York and
00:17is being made to stay out of the UK on national security fears that he could compromise the
00:23royal. Officials feared that Andrew could have been made vulnerable to leveraging for
00:28political interference.
00:30The full details of the case were published for the first time on Thursday, as H6 lost
00:35an appeal against the decision by the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman to bar him
00:39from the UK.
00:41We don't know much about the alleged spy's identity, but what we do know is that he is
00:46a businessman who has close ties to the Chinese state. He's believed to have acted as a business
00:52go-between for Prince Andrew around the time of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, and he was
00:58invited to the royal's birthday party four years ago.
01:01He's suspected of circumventing the Duke's private secretaries and smuggling people unnoticed
01:07in and out of Andrew's residence in Windsor.
01:10As the judges ruled to continue to ban H6 from the UK, they said it was under a suspicion
01:16that he had engaged in covert and deceptive activity on behalf of the Chinese Communist
01:22Party.
01:23The lawyers representing H6 said at a tribunal in July that the man avoids getting involved
01:29in politics and had limited links to the Chinese state.
01:32Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying that they do not act for the prince, who is
01:37now not a working royal.