A CHINESE spy pal of Prince Andrew knew how to sneak people in and out of his Royal Lodge home.
The shock revelation emerged in a letter from one of the duke’s top advisers, Dominic Hampshire, to the foreign agent.
And we can reveal 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.”
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.”
