Prince Harry has approached the Home Secretary seeking clarity over whether his family will receive taxpayer-funded security, a provision that could cost at least £5 million a year.
The Duke of Sussex, who is reportedly preparing to return to the UK with his family within weeks, is said to have privately appealed to Shabana Mahmood for a decision on whether protection will be provided and paid for by the state.
A review of his security arrangements, which Harry has controversially argued should be funded by taxpayers despite no longer being a working royal, was reportedly carried out at the end of July by the risk management board of the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, known as Ravec.
However, the board was reportedly not told that Harry was considering a permanent return to Britain when it assessed the matter.
Initial estimates put the cost of armed police protection for the family during UK visits at more than £5 million, but that figure could rise sharply if the Home Office agrees to fund security and the Sussexes remain in the country long term.
The review came after a protracted dispute over whether Harry, as a non-working member of the Royal Family, qualifies for taxpayer-funded protection following his unsuccessful legal challenge against the government last year.
In that case, the Court of Appeal said that having a grievance was not the same as presenting a valid legal argument.
After losing, Harry claimed he had been the victim of an “establishment stitch up”, but continued pressing for a fresh risk management board review, including by writing to the Home Secretary.
Harry, who is said to feel ‘numbed’ by his struggle to have the security provided for his family, has been told the review is now completed but he has not been given the result despite pushing for it, according to today’s Telegraph.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Sydney earlier this year. In a shock move the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced they are returning to the UK with his family within weeks
Harry has reportedly appealed to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured) for an answer on whether he is getting security for his family in the UK
He has now gone direct to the Home Secretary again, this time to ‘plead for answers’, they report.
The matter has become more urgent as Harry has now announced his family’s sudden return to the UK despite previously having declared the UK was not a place he would currently bring them to because it was not safe for him to do so.
The possibility of the Duchess of Sussex landing a plum acting job in Netflix’s The Gentleman is thought to be a key motivator for the surprising volte face.
Harry has repeatedly argued that the taxpayer should fund the cost for his family’s security as they are potentially high profile targets and he is said to believe it is just a drop in the ocean of Ravec’s overall budget for royalty protection.
Meanwhile fellow non-working royals, such as his cousins, Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie do not receive police protection.
Ravec, which makes the decisions on royal security, includes representatives from the Royal household, the Metropolitan Police, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign Office.
It previously decided what, if any, protection the Duke should have on each visit to the UK.
Relations between Harry and some members of the committee including Sir Clive Alderton, the King’s private secretary, who Harry apparently nicknamed ‘the Wasp’, have previously been strained.
When Harry’s last full risk assessment was conducted in April 2019, he was deemed to be such a target that he was put in the highest category – level seven out of seven.
He won his right to a full risk assessment late last year which was scheduled for March but was delayed until the summer after all RMBs were ‘paused’.
When it was finally convened, it apparently considered a 40-page risk assessment compiled by the Duke’s private security company at the request of the Home Office among the documents it looked at.
The report warned that terrorists could create a ‘mass casualty event’ if they targeted the Duke in a ‘violent attack’ at a public event.
Prince Harry has previously faced a number of serious threats against him with several people jailed for either plotting to kill him or encouraging attacks on him.
