King Charles is all smiles at church as he brushes off Prince Andrew’s ‘Chinese spy’ scandal
KING Charles was all smiles as he attended a church service today amid Prince Andrew’s Chinese spy scandal.
The monarch, 76, was snapped in Wiltshire this morning wearing his late dad Prince Philip’s 70-year-old overcoat.
It comes after the Sun reported a foreign agent knew how to sneak people in and out of the Duke of York’s Royal Lodge home.
The shock revelation emerged in a letter from one of the duke’s top advisers, Dominic Hampshire, to the spy.
Mr Hampshire continued to work for Andrew even after the note was found by MI5 on the spy’s phone in 2020.
It read: “I hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal (Andrew) and indeed his family.
“You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship.
“You sit at the very top of a tree many people would like to be on.”
It added: “Under your guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor.”
Mr Hampshire also confirmed the man could act for Andrew, 64, in talks with Chinese investors.
The note was sent ten months after the duke withdrew from public life after paying damages to Virginia Roberts-Giuffre, a victim of his US paedo pal Jeffrey Epstein.
A source told The Sun: “Dom was still working for the duke until at least April this year.
“It’s hard to believe, given that Andrew must have known for years that his Chinese links had become a matter of national security.”
The Chinese businessman, 50, this week lost an appeal against a decision to ban him from Britain on national security grounds.
Immigration judges ruled he enjoyed an “unusual degree of trust” with the duke, who invited him to his 60th birthday bash.
The panel said Andrew could be “vulnerable to the misuse of that sort of influence”.
A statement from Andrew’s office tonight said of the spy: “The Duke ceased all contact after concerns were raised.
“He met through official channels with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed.”
COUGH UP
Writing for the Sun, royal expert Phil Dampier said: “By allowing a Chinese spy inside royal residences like Windsor and Buckingham Palace he endangered the security of the whole Royal Family and the institution of the monarchy.”
He went on to say Andrew must reveal the source of the money that enables him to stay at the large property on the Windsor estate.
The disgraced duke lost his annual £3million-a-year hand-out from brother Charles, which funded guards at his home.
The Sun on Sunday previously revealed the King axed the cash for Andrew, who does not work but has links to oligarchs.
And last month reported he has negotiated a cheaper protection deal at his leased home which he refuses to leave.
His plan is believed to be bankrolled by Middle East money.
Mr Dampier said it is reported the Privy Council approved the benefactor as legitimate but “if it came from Chinese sources, it is anything but”.
“The Duke of York would be wise to be totally transparent about his finances and tell us where he is getting the money from,” he continued.
“Otherwise speculation will continue to hover over him like a bad smell — unless he comes clean.”
The royal expert believes vacating Royal Lodge and downsizing into Prince Harry’s former home Frogmore Cottage, also within the Windsor grounds, is his “best bet”.
“Why does he need such a massive house just for him and ex-wife Fergie to rattle around in?” he added.
'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.”