Buckingham Palace is yet to confirm if Prince Andrew will attend the King's pre-Christmas lunch on Thursday, despite his name remaining on the guest list. While the Duke initially opted out of official festive celebrations at Sandringham, sources say his attendance at the London luncheon is still unclear. Royal aides are hoping he will reconsider and avoid sending conflicting messages after his decision to step back from Sandringham events.
Buckingham Palace is still unable to confirm whether Prince Andrew will turn up for the King's pre-Christmas lunch on Thursday.
Royal aides couldn't hide their relief on Monday after it was revealed the Duke had decided to 'do the decent thing' and spare his brother's blushes by pulling out of the official festive celebrations and the walk to church at Sandringham next week amid the furore over his association with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In the meantime, senior royal aides are optimistically operating on the 'working assumption' the Duke will 'see sense' again and decide to 'keep his head down'. Privately, there are grave concerns about the depth of Andrew's involvement with Yang who, it has emerged, referred to himself as the 'special envoy of Prince Andrew' and was appointed by the royal as head of his Pitch@Palace China, a Dragons' Den-style initiative from which the Duke took a cut.
But the most damning revelation of recent days was the emergence of correspondence in 2021 from his 'senior advisor', Dominic Hampshire, found by security services on Yang's phone. More worryingly for palace officials, Hampshire wrote that after a meeting with Andrew, they had '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.
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