Who is Yang Tengbo? What we know about the Chinese ‘spy’ with links to Prince Andrew
A suspected Chinese spy – described as a “close confidant” of Prince Andrew – has been publicly named as Yang Tengbo.
Mr Yang, who was known only as H6 until a High Court judge lifted an anonymity order which was shielding his identity on Monday, is barred from entering Britain.
He was first excluded in 2023 by then home secretary Suella Braverman after the Home Office said he was considered to have engaged in “covert and deceptive activity” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The case against Mr Yang has recently been thrust back into the limelight after he argued his exclusion from the UK was unlawful and made an appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
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Last week, the specialist tribunal in London upheld the ban and ruled that Ms Braverman had been “entitled to conclude” that he “represented a risk to the national security”.
MPs have since expressed concern about the level of access allegedly gained by the businessman, after he also met former prime ministers Lord David Cameron and Baroness Theresa May.
Here is everything we know about Mr Yang so far.
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Alleged Chinese spy named as Yang Tengbo
Who is Yang Tengbo?
Mr Yang is a 50-year-old Chinese national who worked as a civil servant in China before coming to the UK as a student in 2002.
In Britain, he set up a consultancy firm called Hampton Group International – an advisory group that helped with relationships between the UK and China.
He is also credited as the co-founder of Pitch@Palace China – the Chinese branch of the Duke of York’s scheme, which was set up to help support entrepreneurs.
Mr Yang is alleged to have been working on behalf of the CCP and United Front Work Department – an arm of the CCP which critics say is used to influence foreign entities.
Judges at the SIAC tribunal 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”.
Pic: Pitch@Palace/YouTube
They also said that My Yang had downplayed his relationship with the Chinese state which, combined with his relationship with Andrew, represented a threat to national security.
The three SIAC judges said on 12 December that Mr Yang had enjoyed a private life in the UK, which had been described as the businessman’s “second home”.
They said he had “settled status, a home and extensive business interests in the United Kingdom. He was regarded as a close confidant of the duke”.
Relationship with Prince Andrew
It is not known precisely when the duke and Mr Yang met, but a statement released by Andrew on Friday said the pair met through “official channels”.
It is believed they grew so close that the businessman was invited to the royal’s birthday party in 2020, visited Buckingham Palace twice, and also entered St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle at the invitation of the duke, according to The Times.
Mr Yang was also told by Andrew’s aide Dominic Hampshire that he could act on the duke’s behalf when dealing with potential investors in China.
Prince Andrew said he ‘ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised’. File pic: PA
The SIAC tribunal heard that a March 2020 letter from Mr Hampshire – referencing the invitation to the duke’s birthday – was found on Mr Yang’s devices when he was stopped at a port in November 2021.
The adviser said in the letter: “I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal (Prince Andrew) and indeed his family.
“You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship… Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”
Judges who upheld the ban on Mr Yang entering the country argued the duke could have been made “vulnerable” by his influence.
The duke’s statement said he “ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised”.
“The duke met the individual through official channels, with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed. He is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security,” the statement said.
Several newspapers have reported that the King has been briefed about his brother’s links to the alleged spy.
Former Conservative Party leaders Lord Cameron and Baroness May were also pictured with Mr Yang.
There is no suggestion either of them were aware of his reported links to the Chinese state, and it is not known when the images were taken.
Both Lord Cameron and Baroness May’s spokespeople told Sky News they meet and are photographed with many people each year.
Baroness May’s spokeswoman said she does not remember “when or where the particular photograph was taken or the man in question”.
While a source close to Lord Cameron said: “David Cameron was leader of the Conservative Party for over a decade and PM for six years.
“He met thousands of people in that time at hundreds of functions and events. We don’t have any further information about this individual.”
‘I have done nothing wrong’
In a statement after his identity was revealed, Mr Yang said the allegations against him are “entirely untrue”.
He said he is a victim of a “political climate” which had seen a rise in tensions between the UK and China.
“I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded,” Mr Yang said, adding: “The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.”
He said he is seeking to appeal the decision of the SIAC.
Mr Yang continued to say that he is “an independent, self-made entrepreneur” who has “always aimed to foster partnerships and build bridges between East and West”.
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He said: “I have dedicated my professional life in the UK to building links between British and Chinese businesses.
“My activities have played a part in bringing hundreds of millions of pounds of investment into the UK.
“I built my private life in the UK over two decades and love the country as my second home. I would never do anything to harm the interests of the UK.”
What has China said?
A spokesperson for the UK’s Chinese embassy said last week that some in the UK are “so keen” on making up “all kinds of spy stories against China”.
“This again is a typical case of the thief crying ‘catch thief’,” they added.
“Their purpose is to smear China and sabotage normal people-to-people exchanges between China and the UK. We strongly condemn this.”
They also said the United Front “endeavours to bring together various political parties and people from all walks of life, ethnic groups and organisations” to “promote cooperation between the CCP and people who are not members of it”.
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“Some on the British side repeatedly use China’s United Front work as a pretext to accuse China of wrongdoing, discredit China’s political system, and undermine normal exchanges and co-operation between China and the UK.
“Such sinister plots will never succeed. We urge the relevant parties in the UK to immediately stop creating trouble, stop spreading the ‘China threat’ narrative and stop undermining normal exchanges between China and the UK.”
Merseyside Police knows – better than any force, perhaps – that in a social media age, an information vacuum can become a misinformation cauldron.
They have learnt from the aftermath of the Southport stabbing attack, where the force was criticised for being too slow to release information that could have calmed the riots that followed.
So, it feels like things have been done differently this time.
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Police tents surrounded by debris at the scene in Water Street. Pic: PA
The incident happened just after 6pm on Monday.
Videos – captured by fans on their phones – were online within moments. Shared and speculated upon, with guesses as to the attacker’s identity and motive.
But alongside the huge and immediate police investigation, the communication machine moved equally fast.
Within a few hours, police released a description of the man they had arrested – a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area.
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Moment car drives into crowds in Liverpool
A few hours after that, we had an extensive press conference during which police ruled out terrorism as a motive.
Again, they appealed for videos not to be shared online and for people not to speculate.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said Merseyside Police “handled the situation fantastically” given how quickly footage of the incident was shared online.
He told Sky News that online misinformation can set “a lot of false narrative”.
The mayor added: “And we all know that speculation and social media are a wildfire of different vantages, and some of it is for nefarious reasons.
“So, it was right, of course, that the police reacted as quickly as they did to dampen down some of the types of posts that we were witnessing, you know, saying that there were other things happening throughout the city.”
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‘These were utterly tragic scenes’
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Police commentator Graham Wettone also told Sky News the force had done well to quickly combat misinformation spreading online.
He said: “That’s always a problem in today’s day and age, social media taking over so much news reporting, with so many people as well present at the scene where that awful incident took place, mobile phones out, people recording it, and then posting it almost straight away.”
Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent, also highlighted it was “unprecedented” that the force “very quickly” gave the ethnicity and race of the suspect.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: “I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there’s a conspiracy theory.”
Mr Babu agreed that Merseyside Police appears to have learned lessons from what happened after the Southport stabbings.
He added: “The difficulty we have is in the olden days, when I was policing, you would have a conversation with trusty journalists, print journalists, radio journalists, broadcasting journalists, you’d have a conversation and say look can you please hold fire on sharing this information and people would listen.
“We don’t have that with social media, it’s like the Wild West and anything goes and so puts the police in a very, very difficult position.”
Meanwhile, the police investigation continues.
In central Liverpool, Water Street is cordoned off with police officers and vehicles in place.
Flags, sprays of paint flares and empty bottles still cover the road. Whereas they have been cleared elsewhere along the parade route, here they remain. Chilling symbols of the party, that within moments became a scene of utter horror.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.
Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.
More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.
King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.
“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.
John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.
“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.
“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.
“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”
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John Jefkins
John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.
“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.
“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”
The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”
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King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a two-day visit to Canada.
On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.
Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”
Ministers are considering scrapping the two-child benefit cap, the education secretary told Sky News.
Bridget Phillipson, asked by Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast if the cap should be lifted, said: “It’s not off the table.
“It’s certainly something that we’re considering.”
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The policy means most families cannot claim means-tested benefits for more than their first two children born after April 2017.
Ms Phillipson’s comments are the strongest a minister has made about the policy potentially being scrapped.
Analysis by The Resolution Foundation thinktank over the weekend found 470,000 children would be lifted out of poverty if parents could claim benefits for more than two children.
However, Ms Phillipson said the government inherited a “really difficult situation” with public finances from the Conservative government.
“These are not easy or straightforward choices in terms of how we stack it up, but we know the damage child poverty causes,” she added.
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Why did Labour delay their child poverty strategy?
The education secretary, who is also head of the government’s child poverty taskforce, said ministers are trying to help in other ways, such as expanding funded childcare hours and opening free breakfast clubs.
She said it is “the moral purpose of Labour governments to ensure that everyone, no matter their background, can get on in life”.
Her “personal mission” is to tackle child poverty, she said.
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Sir Keir Starmer is said to have privately backed abolishing the two-child limit and requested the Treasury find the £3.5bn to do so, The Observer reported on Sunday.
The government’s child poverty strategy, which the taskforce is working on, has been delayed from its original publication date in the spring.
Whether to scrap the two-child benefit cap is one of the main issues it is looking at.
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