On Friday, it was revealed that the security services were investigating money given to the duke’s business venture by Chinese donors with links to H6.

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The King was made aware of the MI5 investigation of his brother and his links to the alleged Chinese agent before the judgment that exposed their friendship.

H6 brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission after Suella Braverman, the home secretary at the time, said he should be excluded from the UK in March 2023.

Judges were told that in a briefing for Mrs Braverman in July last year, officials claimed the man had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”.

They also said H6 had played down his relationship with the Chinese state which, combined with his relationship with the Duke of York, represented a threat to national security.

At a hearing in July, the specialist tribunal heard the businessman was told by Dominic Hampshire, an adviser to Prince Andrew, that he could act on the duke’s behalf when dealing with potential investors in China, and that H6 had been invited to the duke’s birthday party in 2020.

A letter from Hampshire referring to the birthday party was discovered on H6’s devices when he was stopped at a port in November 2021.

In a ruling last week, Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon dismissed the challenge.

The Telegraph, London