PRINCE Harry’s battle to win back his taxpayer-funded security has hit the “last chance saloon”, according to a royal expert.
The Duke of Sussex has been embroiled in a bitter High Court battle after the Home Office refused to fund his bodyguards after he left the Royal Family.
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It was reported last week that he found the decision “difficult to swallow” and felt that it was a scheme crafted to force him and Meghan back into the Royal Family again.
After a two-day hearing last week sat partly in private to hear confidential evidence, the 40-year-old duke was said to be unhappy with what he heard.
As he left the Royal Courts of Justice, Harry told The Telegraph “people would be shocked by what’s being held back”.
The appeal decision will be handed down by the three-judge panel after Easter, which according to Royal biographer Cameron Walker, will be the Prince‘s “last chance saloon”.
He said: “I think this is a last chance saloon for Harry, because this is now the appeal stage, isn’t it?
“So he’s either going to be successful, or he’s not going to be successful.
“I’m not a legal expert, but it looks like his lawyer is trying everything possible, any possible angle that is going to convince the appeal judges to side with Prince Harry on this particular point.”
The King’s private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, is on the Royal and VIP Committee (RAVEC) which makes the decision with the Home Office on whether or not to downgrade the Prince’s security.
When RAVEC’s original decision was shared that Met Police protection would be scrapped, the Duke said it had been imposed upon him “as some form of punishment for protecting my family and putting them first”.
“People would be shocked by what’s being held back,” he said, adding that his “worst fears have been confirmed by the whole legal disclosure in this case and that’s really sad”.
The dad-of-two said he is being “driven by exposing injustice” and that he is determined to “get under the bonnet and fix it”.
He also hinted he would never be able to forgive what he viewed as a deliberate move to scrap the protection for his family.
But Royal Correspondent Sarah Hewson told the Sun: “The fact that he thinks the one person who could make a difference to this is his father, the King, who with a nod could sweep this issue away.
What level of security protection are working royals entitled to?
A HANDFUL of working members of the Royal Family have 24/7 protection – but others are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Senior officers are assigned to specific members of the household and are supported by others, one expert told The Sun.
He claimed there will always be a minimum of one protection officer with a member of the Royal Family, but the protection team is increased according to threat and risk.
King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Wales’ family have round-the-clock protection and the monarch also has a corridor officer based outside his bedroom door, the expert said.
The likes of Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex are given protection when they are taking part in official engagements – but do not have taxpayer-funded security at their homes.
Prince Andrew had his taxpayer-funded security removed following the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
His daughters Princess Beatrice and Prince Eugenie are said to not have funded security as they are not full-time working royals – and are employed elsewhere.
Robert Jobson, an award-winning royal author, explained: “According to a 1917 Letters of Patent issued by King George V, the title of HRH Prince or Princess is passed to ‘The grandchildren of the sons of any such sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of dukes of this realm.’
“Both Harry and Meghan know this. Archie, on the other hand, did not qualify to become a prince automatically.
“In 2012, Queen Elizabeth II issued a Letters Patent to expand on a previous decree that granted such a title only to the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales.”
“And of course, he can’t because he can’t be seen to be interfering in the judicial system.”
At the latest hearing, Harry’s lawyer Shaheed Fatima KC told the court in a closing statement: “There is a person sitting behind me whose safety, whose security and whose life is at stake.
“There is a person sitting behind me who’s being told that he is getting a special and bespoke process when he knows and has experienced a process that is manifestly inferior in every respect.”
She added: “We say that his presence here and through this appeal is a potent illustration, were one needed, about how much this appeal means to him and family.”
Ms Fatima claimed on the first day Harry had been “singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment”.
She also touched on Megxit – claiming in written documents that Harry and Meghan Markle felt “forced” to leave to the Royal Family.
The lawyer added: “On 8 January 2020, (the duke) and his wife felt forced to step back from the role of full time official working members of the royal family as they considered they were not being protected by the institution, but they wished to continue their duties in support of the late Queen as privately funded members of the royal family.”
Harry’s family feud
Princes William and Harry have not been in direct communication since the release of Harry’s controversial memoir, Spare, in January 2023.
Their last reported interaction was during the funeral of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022, but conversations were said to be brief.
The feuding brothers reportedly did not speak to each other despite standing “virtually back to back” among mourners at their uncle’s memorial service last August.
The Duke of Sussex and his brother did not exchange a word at the memorial in Snettisham, Norfolk – and Harry stayed at Althorp during the UK stay.
One mourner said: “They were only five yards from each other.”
The brothers have been at loggerheads since Harry and wife Meghan quit royal duty in 2020 for a new life in the US, where they have launched a succession of barbs at the Royal Family.
