NADINE DORRIES: Why families SHOULD find a place for black sheep at Christmas – even Andrew

The king and queen had to breathe a sigh of relief when they heard it. No ghosts at the Sandringham party this year! No one can avoid being photographed while walking to church on Christmas Day. Or to avoid when you pull a cracker while eating.

A sense of shame – or perhaps some wise words whispered in his ear from ex-wife Fergie – convinced Prince Andrew to stay away from the royals’ Christmas gathering.

As the Mail reports today, Charles felt unable to banish his younger brother outright after the ‘Chinese spy scandal’ heaped further shame on his non-existent reputation. But he and Camilla hoped the Duke of York would do the ‘right thing’.

In fact, he had little choice. Since news of his ‘close friendship’ with Chinese businessman and alleged spy, Yang Tengbo (aka Chris Yang), pressure has increased on Andrew to cancel Christmas altogether.

And that includes the private lunch the King will host at Buckingham Palace this week for immediate and extended family members who don’t make the Sandringham cut, plus friends. As I write this, the ‘assumption’ is that his brother won’t show up.

But demanding that he also miss this lunch is definitely contrary to the Christmas spirit. To me it feels like bullying.

What exactly Andrew did, or how he might have benefited from his association with Mr Yang, has yet to be determined.

What we do know is that Mr Yang, who denies all allegations, had the authority to act on behalf of the Prince in his dealings with potential investors in China.

Andrew certainly has financial challenges. He is no longer a working royal and has lost his £1 million ‘living allowance’ from the King after refusing to move from the Royal Lodge in Windsor to smaller premises.

But it seems like there are endless rich people willing to help him, and maybe Mr. Yang was one of them.

What exactly they get in return, apart from invitations to royal events and networking opportunities, is unclear. I doubt Andrew has an inside track on anything these days. As far as privileged information goes, I suspect he wouldn’t know more about anything than what you or I wouldn’t have access to through Google.

He’s not the only one dealing with suspected spies, either. Former Prime Ministers Theresa May and David Cameron had their photos taken with Yang (both said they had no idea who he was).

Chinese infiltration into Westminster has been an ongoing problem for several years. From junior staffers to parliamentarians, the Chinese Communist Party has successfully used devious methods to gain power – and it likes to play the long game.

MI5 are well used to knocking on the door of an unsuspecting MP to inform them that they, or a member of staff, have been well and truly treated.

I am in no way defending Prince Andrew. He has brought great shame to the royal family for years, most infamously through his friendship with the late pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

In any case, he should withdraw from public appearances. But in a revealing interview last weekend, his ex-wife, who still shares a house with him, described him as a ‘sad man’. To me, this suggests that there can be some degree of remorse for his many different shortcomings.

Every family has a black sheep, but many find a way to house them at Christmas. It would be a shame if the royals can’t do the same on Thursday.

Blonde Davina is a source of inspiration

Davina McCall as a blonde? Who would have thought that? And yet the presenter looks stunning in a photo released to promote the return of ITV’s The Masked Singer next month.

The photo was taken before her recent brain surgery to remove a benign cyst, and I want to pay tribute to the positive attitude Davina has shown throughout her recent battle.

She lost her sister, who had two brain tumors, in 2012, and last week took to the stage at a charity event for the Brain Tumor Research Campaign to speak in heartbreaking detail about her sibling and her own experiences.

Davina, you are an inspiration to many.

Support Boris and fight, fight, fight

Boris Johnson’s column in yesterday’s Mail is required reading for anyone who voted for Brexit, and then naively believed every rotten lie spouted by Sir Keir Starmer about how Brexit was safe under Labour.

We now know that Brexit is not secure – and that Starmer has set up a Whitehall ‘Surrender Squad’ of civil servants tasked with undoing Brexit. It is even bigger than the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU), which was created to make Brexit possible.

We live in a democracy, but this Socialist Prime Minister displays an arrogance that would have made even Tony Blair blush. It’s clear we were scammed.

Let’s hope the weather remains mild, for the sake of the elderly who didn’t vote to have their winter fuel payments abolished.

Just as farmers did not vote to lose the family business because of punitive inheritance taxes. Or the bosses of companies large and small who have not voted to lay off staff because they cannot afford the national insurance increase. I could go on…

We must heed the words of Boris, the only Tory leading on this issue. His message is ‘fight, fight and fight again’ for the freedoms we voted for in 2016.

The first chance we have to show Labor what we think of their abysmal performance as a government, their smoke and mirrors and their lies and deceit, comes with the local elections in May.

It can’t come soon enough.

The sprouts I’ve always dreamed of…

Festive sprouts are reportedly 25 percent larger than normal – and I can vouch for that.

Prior to hosting a pre-Christmas lunch at the weekend, I bought my first sprout tree, each protrusion the size of a mini cabbage standing proudly on the stem.

We can thank climate change for that. It was warm when the sprouts were planted, which meant excellent germination; and it was wet while they were growing.

Then the all-important icy crunch arrived, giving us a perfectly tight and well-formed Brassica oleracea for Yuletide.

For five years I tried to grow sprouts in my vegetable garden with no success – so this year I gave up the dream. The moral of this story? Never take gardening advice from me. Merry Christmas!