Over the weekend, the Telegraph had a curious and awful story about Prince Harry’s UK security fight. I won’t recap the whole thing, but suffice to say, even with a security risk assessment saying that the Sussex family should receive police protection within the UK, the Windsors are still trying to find a way to deny that security. The Telegraph played fast and loose with what was really happening within RAVEC, the committee which determines who gets police protection, but it absolutely sounds like King Charles and Prince William’s senior courtiers are pushing for no police protection for the Sussexes. Well, one of Prince Harry’s friends spoke about this issue to Richard Eden at the Daily Mail recently:
As Prince Harry plans to bring his wife Meghan back to Britain this summer for the first time in four years, one of his best friends has piled more pressure on the Government to restore the couple’s security. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were stripped of automatic taxpayer-funded police protection on their visits to Britain after they chose to quit royal duties and move to America in 2020. Last year, King Charles’ younger son lost a legal battle with the Home Office to have it reinstated.
However, his request to the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, for a full risk assessment to be carried out was granted last December and the committee which makes the final decision on the level of police protection was expected to meet in January to discuss the reinstatement.
Alex Rayner, who went to the North Pole with Harry on a charity trek in 2012 and is in regular contact with him, suggests the two tours of duty that the duke served in Afghanistan during his ten-year Army career make him particularly vulnerable.
In an apparent reference to the King’s protection of his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on his private Sandringham estate in Norfolk, Rayner tells me: ‘Harry is a royal who’s significantly served in the Armed Forces. To ask him to pay for it privately feels a tiny bit spiteful, given that there are other members of the Royal Family who receive it who do far less.’
Harry served in war-torn Afghanistan as a forward air controller and later as an Apache helicopter pilot. Next year, the Invictus Games, which he created to help injured and sick former soldiers, will be held here and Harry hopes Meghan will accompany him to an event this July to promote it.
‘This guy was flying Apaches in a conflict and we’ve got the Invictus Games coming up in Birmingham,’ says Rayner, who was educated at Harry’s alma mater Eton College. ‘Are we not supporting him for that?’
Spiteful? Yes. Petty and childish? Absolutely. Dangerous and potentially criminal? 100%. Harry’s legal fight and subsequent “establishment stitch-up” interview did one good thing though – his awful family won’t be able to get away with refusing his security without backlash. People will call them out, maybe even some royal reporters and definitely some security experts. The calculations at play for Charles and William are ridiculous too – William believes that if Harry goes without police protection, then it will be like waving a magic wand. making Harry look un-royaled. William and Charles both think that if they ignore Harry and the Birmingham Invictus Games, then everyone else will too. Their jealousy of Harry and their small-minded decisions will blow up in their faces spectacularly.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Cover Images.
