Prince Harry has called on the Home Secretary to step in and review the body which authorises protection for senior royals – as said he had been treated as an ‘exception on the issue’.
The Duke of Sussex tonight launched a series of scathing attacks on the Royal Family, saying his father won’t speak to him, in an astonishing interview with the BBC.
He revealed that he ‘doesn’t know how long his father has left’, will not bring his wife or children back to the UK – and said he had had ‘so many disagreements’ with his family, some of whom ‘may never forgive’ him for writing a book.
Harry also blamed the Royal Household for influencing the decision to reduce his security and branded the court defeat a ‘good old-fashioned establishment stitch up’.
After the decision on Friday, the 40-year-old said he would ask Yvette Cooper to ‘look at this very, very carefully’, and warned that the royal family’s power over security means it ‘can be used to control’ family members.
When asked whether Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should ‘step in’, Harry told the BBC: ‘I think that based on the judgment that the court has put out today, it clearly states that Ravec are not constrained by law.
‘Again, I wish somebody had said that from the beginning.’
He continued: ‘Yes, I would ask the Prime Minister to step in.
Harry’s comments came after England’s second most senior judge, Sir Geoffrey Vos, today told the duke his ‘grievance’ over downgraded security had not ‘translated into a legal argument’.
The Duke of Sussex tonight launched a series of scathing attacks on the Royal Family, and said his father won’t speak to him, in an astonishing interview with the BBC
In the astonishing interview, Prince Harry revealed he did not know how long his father Charles had left (pictured together in 2022)
The Duke of Sussex at the Royal Courts of Justice on April 8 during his appeal against a High Court ruling preventing him getting automatic taxpayer-funded police protection in the UK
And he ruled the security decision had been a ‘predictable’ and even ‘sensible’ reaction to Megxit when Harry stepped back from being a senior royal and quit Britain.
In response , Buckingham Palace said Harry’s security issues had been ‘examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion’.
In a devastating broadside reopening wounds with the Royal Family on Friday night, Harry told the BBC in California that he wants ‘reconciliation’ with the royal family but was at present cut off from his father.
‘He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff,’ the prince said, adding he didn’t know how long the King had left to live.
‘There have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family,’ he said, but he had now ‘forgiven’ them.
Saying that he felt ‘let down’ and looking upset, he described his court defeat as a ‘good old-fashioned establishment stitch up’ and blamed the Royal Household for influencing the decision to reduce his security.
Asked whether he had asked his father the King to intervene in the dispute over security, Prince Harry said: ‘I never asked him to intervene – I asked him to step out of the way and let the experts do their jobs.
‘The Ravec committee is an expert committee full of professionals plus the royals.’
He added: ‘Five years later, every single visit that I do back to the UK has to go through the royal household.
‘My representative on the Ravec committee still to this day is the royal household.
‘That’s not a decision that I choose. I am forced to go through the royal household and accept that they are putting my best interests forward during these conversations and deliberations.
‘So no, I haven’t asked my father to intervene.’
When asked by the BBC what about his current security arrangements made him feel unsafe, the Duke of Sussex replied: ‘Everything.’
The Duke of Sussex returned to London for the appeal
Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, pictured today as he rejected Harry’s appeal
The Duke of Sussex’s appeal against the dismissal of his legal challenge over the level of protection he and his family (pictured together at Christmas) is about his family’s right to security and safety, the court heard
He continued: ‘I would not have taken this this far if I did not have compelling evidence of facts that reveal why the decision was made and I am sitting here today talking to you, where we have lost the appeal, but the other side have won in keeping me unsafe, so again there is a lot of question marks that a lot of people will have.
‘I have all of the truth, I have all of the knowledge now, throughout the legal process.
‘I have uncovered my worst fears, and to now know today based on this judgment that there was no legal framework that constrains the decisions of this body Ravec, on which the royal household sit on, and I didn’t know that until this legal process in 2021, one of the first things my lawyer said to me as disclosure started, as this process started, was ‘did you know that the royal household sat on Ravec?’, and my jaw hit the floor.’
In a shocking revelation, Harry also said he would not bring his family to the UK.
He explained: ‘I can’t see a world in which I will be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point and the things they are going to miss is everything.
‘I love my country and always have done. Despite what some people in that country have done. So I miss the UK. I miss parts of the UK. Of course I do. I think it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.’
It comes as Harry today sensationally lost his battle for taxpayer-funded armed police bodyguards when in the UK – putting him on the hook for £1.5million in costs.
The Duke of Sussex was told his ‘grievance’ over downgraded security had not ‘translated into a legal argument’ to successfully challenge the decision.
Harry believes he has been ‘singled out’ and ‘badly treated’ for ‘unjustified, inferior treatment’ since Megxit five years ago.
Meghan and Harry in New York last month, where they are believed to have had police protection, according to reports
His barrister argued that the removal of Met Police armed bodyguards when he is in the UK has left the royal’s life ‘at stake’.
The California-based royal had fought the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office over the decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of protection when in the country.
But Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls said in his ruling this afternoon in London that Ravec’s decision ‘were taken as an understandable, and perhaps predictable, reaction to the claimant having stepped back from royal duties and having left the UK to live principally overseas’.
‘These were powerful and moving arguments and that it was plain the Duke of Sussex felt badly treated by the system’, he said.
‘But I concluded, having studied the detail, I could not say that the Duke’s sense of grievance translated into a legal argument to challenge RAVEC’s decision’.
Sir Geoffrey said Harry ‘makes the mistake of confusing superficial analogies’ when comparing himself with other VIPs which had ‘added nothing’ to the legal question.
He added: ‘My conclusion was that the Duke of Sussex’s appeal would be dismissed’.
It means that for now, armed police bodyguards, paid for by the British taxpayer, will not be automatically reinstated for him, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet when they are in the UK. It raises more questions over whether the Sussexes will visit Britain again.
The King and his youngest son are believed to have differing views over Harry’s decision to pursue his legal fight with the Home Office. The Home Secretary is calling for the duke to pay all costs for both sides – a bill approaching £1.5million.
