Keir Starmer faces rising strain to toughen Labour’s stance on China – following scandal of the alleged spy who befriended Prince Andrew
Keir Starmer has defended fostering closer ties with China – despite being told Beijing has ‘thousands’ of agents who could emulate the alleged spy who befriended Prince Andrew.
The Prime Minister admitted he was ‘concerned about the challenge’ posed by China but doubled down on his policy of ‘engagement’ and ‘co-operating’ with the state.
It came as businessman and former York University student Yang Tengbo was unmasked as an alleged spy who wove a web of influence through the British establishment.
His identity was revealed after the lifting of a court order yesterday – allowing the extent of his activities to be reported for the first time.
The development renewed calls on the Prime Minister – who last month met China’s president Xi Jinping in the first face-to-face talks between British and Chinese leaders in six years – to take a harder line.
Yang, 50 – who also used the Anglicised name Christopher Yang – has been photographed alongside former prime ministers Theresa May and David Cameron and former chancellor George Osborne.
The businessman, described as a ‘close confidant’ of Andrew who was invited to his 60th birthday party, also went into business with the late Lady (Barbara) Judge, a former chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority once described as one of the ‘best-connected women in Britain’.
Yang was first stopped from entering the UK under counter-terror laws in 2021 and had his devices seized. Documents found showed he had been authorised to set up an international financial initiative on behalf of the duke in China.
Sir Keir Starmer meeting Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Brazil last month. The Prime Minister admitted he was ‘concerned about the challenge’ posed by China while doubling down on his policy of ‘engagement’ with the state
Businessman and former York University student Yang Tengbo was unmasked as an alleged spy with links to Prince Andrew (pictured)
Yang Tengbo or Christopher Yang with former prime minister Theresa May and her husband Philip
It also emerged:
- Prince Andrew will not join the rest of the royals for their traditional Christmas gathering in Sandringham, after once again dragging the family into controversy
- MI5 believes China must be placed on a long-delayed list of countries that pose the biggest national security threat to Britain
- ‘Every’ MP was told they should expect to be contacted at some point by agents working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
- There are believed to be 40,000 members of the Chinese state’s intelligence and propaganda arm working overseas
In a note, Prince Andrew’s ‘senior adviser’ Dominic Hampshire said Yang sat at the ‘very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on’.
In 2023, the Home Office confirmed Yang, then known only by the cipher H6, would be excluded from the country as he was considered to have engaged in ‘covert and deceptive activity’ on behalf of the CCP.
Following an urgent Commons question on the threat posed by China yesterday, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp added that it was likely that ‘every’ MP would be contacted at some point by agents working on behalf of the CCP, warning that governments, businesses and universities were being ‘systematically infiltrated’.
He added: ‘I think given what we’ve learned and what we know, these very close relations that the Prime Minister is apparently attempting may not be wise, and the rather sycophantic tone the Prime Minister took with President Xi at the G20 a few weeks ago may not be very wise in light of what we now know.’
The alleged spy (seen on the left, wearing glasses and holding the document) had impressive connections in the UK
Tengbo invested in a fashion and soft furnishings company with the late former chair of both the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Institute of Directors, Lady Barbara Judge
Chinese president Xi Jinping. MI5 believes China must be placed on a long-delayed list of countries that pose the biggest national security threat to Britain
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith pointed to intelligence suggesting China has 40,000 members of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) – its intelligence and propaganda arm – working overseas.
He said they had ‘penetrated every sector of the UK economy, spying, stealing intellectual property, influencing and shaping our institutions’. Yang yesterday issued a statement in which he said he had ‘done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill founded’.
‘The widespread description of me as a “spy” is entirely untrue,’ he added. ‘When relations are good, and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK. When relations sour, an anti-China stance is taken, and I am excluded.’
He said he had loved Britain as his ‘second home’, adding: ‘I would never do anything to harm the interests of the UK.’
The Foreign Secretary yesterday conceded that Britain should prepare for further spy scandals owing to the ‘complex threats’ posed by nations including China, Iran and Russia, and did not rule out other suspected state agents being banned from the country.
David Lammy said six suspected spies had already been detained under the National Security Act, adding that the Prince Andrew scandal did not ‘exist, sadly, in a vacuum’.
Sir Keir defended his strategy for dealing with China, saying: ‘Our approach is one of engagement, of co-operating where we need to co-operate… to challenge where we must and where we should.’
