Taxpayer-funded security for Prince Harry in the UK is facing pushback over political risks. Photo / Getty Images
Taxpayer-funded security for Prince Harry in the UK is facing pushback over political risks. Photo / Getty Images
Home Office officials are trying to block the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from being given taxpayer-funded security over fears of a public backlash.
The Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec), which authorises security for senior members of the toyal family on behalf of the Home Office, is assessing whetherto reinstate security provision for Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan.
Civil servants from the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign Office who sit on the committee are understood to oppose granting the couple taxpayer-funded protection whenever they are in the UK because it would carry too much political risk.
A full risk assessment is underway, but a decision has not yet been made. However, a Home Office source told the Telegraph there was a split in the ranks.
The source said: “There is nervousness among certain members of the committee who fear a public backlash. The political side believe there is too much political risk while the police and security chiefs believe that he absolutely must have it due to the extant threat.”
The Royal and VIP Executive Committee is assessing whether to reinstate their security provision for Prince Harry. Photo / Getty Images
A spokesman for the Duke declined to comment, but there were believed to be concerns in his camp that the decision would “again be influenced by politics” rather than security and “the realities of the situation”.
Last year, he lost a legal challenge in which he had argued that he was entitled to an official risk assessment to determine the threat level against him. His last full risk analysis was in April 2019, when he was deemed such a target that he was put in the highest risk category.
The Duke described his court defeat as a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up” and blamed the royal household for influencing the decision to reduce his protection.
He said the decision had an impact “every single day”, and had prevented him from bringing Meghan and their children to the UK. After losing his appeal he wrote to Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, asking for the decision to be reconsidered.
The Home Office is split over who should pay for Prince Harry and Meghan's security cover in the UK. Photo / Getty Images
About two months later, it emerged that he had been granted a security review by the Risk Management Board, the expert body that submits its findings to Ravec. Having submitted all the requested documentation, the Duke is awaiting a decision from the committee.
Ravec’s members include a chairman, whose identity the Telegraph has been asked not to reveal, Sir Clive Alderton, the King’s private secretary, and representatives from the Prince of Wales’s household, the Metropolitan Police, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign Office.
The Duke, who lives in Florida, is next due in Britain in July for an event to start the one-year countdown to the 2026 Invictus Games, which will be held in Birmingham.
He is concerned the threat against him has worsened since he left the UK. There are thought to be three Britons at large who have been jailed then released after plotting to cause him harm.
A stalker, who is on a list of fixated individuals drawn up by a private intelligence company, was within feet of the Duke on his last two visits to London. She was in the public gallery at the High Court in January as he gave evidence in his privacy case against Associated Newspapers Ltd.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK Government’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate.
“It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”
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