Prince Andrew pulls out of pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace amid Chinese ‘spy’ scandal: Duke of York will not join Royal Family after speaking to ex-wife Sarah Ferguson who ‘advised him not to attend’

The Duke of York has pulled out of tomorrow’s pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, MailOnline can reveal.

After a conversation with his ex-wife, the Duchess of York, Prince Andrew has decided not to join the 70 members of the royal family at the palace.

The duke’s decision will come as a relief to his brother, King Charles III, amid the ongoing furor over Andrew’s relationship with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.

It was claimed that Andrew insisted on going to the luncheon, telling his friends ‘that he had to be there’, and that since it was a family affair, ‘why not go?’

And even last night, royal officials were still in the dark about his plans. But MailOnline understands that Sarah has now persuaded him not to attend.

It comes after Andrew also agreed not to attend the royal family’s Christmas celebrations at Sandringham next week.

Royal aides could not hide their relief on Monday after it emerged that the Duke had decided to ‘do the decent thing’ and spare the King’s blushes by withdrawing from the official festive festivities and the walk to church.

Every year, however, the monarch also invites his extended family – aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, husbands and wives – who can’t make it to Sandringham, to gather for a big festive meal in London.

Sources said yesterday they had ‘no idea’ whether the beleaguered royal would show up.

In the meantime, senior royal aides had acted optimistically on the ‘actual assumption’ that the duke would ‘see sense again’ and decide to ‘keep his head down’.

They felt that his presence at the ‘monarchy headquarters’ would send a ‘conflicting and confusing message’ as they had chosen what was described as ‘the friendly option’ over Sandringham.

The lunch is private, but guests are usually photographed going in and out of the palace gates.

Privately, there are serious concerns about the extent of Andrew’s involvement with Mr Yang, who, it has emerged, dubbed himself ‘Prince Andrew’s special envoy’ and was appointed by the royal family to head his Pitch@Palace China, a Dragons organization. ‘Den-style initiative of which the Duke took part.

Andrew insists he did nothing wrong, despite a judge raising questions about how the alleged spy could have become such a ‘confidante’.

It stems from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and concerns about the duke’s role as Britain’s official ‘trade ambassador’.

But the most damning revelation in recent days was the emergence of correspondence in 2021 from his “senior adviser”, Dominic Hampshire, which was found by security services on Mr Yang’s phone.

Mr Hampshire highlighted the “strength” of the relationship with the Duke and his family, adding: “Outside of his closest internal confidantes, you are right at the top of a tree that a lot of people would like to be in.”

Even more worryingly for palace officials, Mr Hampshire wrote that after meeting Andrew they had “sensibly navigated our way past former private secretaries and have found a way to carefully weed out those people we do not fully trust.”

He added that ‘under your leadership we have found a way to get the relevant people in and out of the house in Windsor unnoticed’ – a reference to Royal Lodge, Andrew’s home in Berkshire.

There is no idea who these individuals are – or why they are so eager to bypass security to smuggle people into his home.

The access Yang had when he visited royal residences several times at Andrew’s invitation is still under investigation.

Mr Yang, a businessman who has forged close ties with the Duke of York and met senior politicians including Lord David Cameron and Baroness Theresa May, has been exiled from Britain since last year.

He challenged his ban from entering Britain at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in July, but lost his appeal last week.

He has insisted he has “done nothing wrong or illegal”, and said it is “completely untrue” to claim he was involved in espionage, claiming he was the victim of a “political climate” in which tensions between the Great Britain and China.

In a statement after a High Court judge revoked an order granting him anonymity, he said: ‘Due to the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere, I have asked my legal team to reveal my identity.

“I have done nothing wrong or illegal and the concerns raised against me by the Home Office are unfounded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is completely untrue.”