Prince Harry has lost a last-gasp effort to get automatic high-level police protection whenever he or his family is visiting the United Kingdom.
The judgment handed down today will be a relief to Buckingham Palace, as it means Harry will have to continue to provide 28 days’ notice of any intention to visit the U.K.
It could also pave the way for a reconciliation between King Charles and Harry. The king has avoided contact with Harry in recent months, fearing that any attempt by Harry to lobby his father about the case could create a constitutional quagmire. However, it could equally make matters worse: There have been hints that Harry could record a podcast or write about how he feels he has been betrayed by his family on the issue.
Harry’s legal team argued that Harry had been “singled out” for “inferior treatment” that placed his “safety and life … at stake” after his U.K. security arrangements were downgraded after stepping back from royal duties and relocating to California.
But the government’s position has now been upheld in the Court of Appeal, and Harry has no further legal avenues to pursue and must accept the ruling.
Harry previously told People magazine that removing their police protection was an effort to control his family and force them back into the royal fold because, without the extra security, visits to the U.K. could potentially be dangerous.
A Harry source previously told The Daily Beast that the king and Harry’s relationship had collapsed over Harry’s belief that his father was denying him automatic police protection in the U.K.
A source close to Harry told The Royalist last year that the two were no longer speaking by phone and laid the blame for the “unbelievable situation” around Harry being denied automatic police security in the U.K. despite a “very real threat” firmly at the feet of the king, adding, “If the king wanted, he could do this for his son.”
However, official sources at Buckingham Palace told The Daily Beast that it would be “wholly inappropriate” for the king to pull rank and attempt to influence the government committee, the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, which makes decisions about royals’ personal protection.
One source mused to The Daily Beast shortly after the assassination attempt on P{resident Donald Trump that it was odd to argue that “the U.K. presents more of a threat to the duke’s security than the U.S., where even the best-protected individual in the land can still find themselves subject to attack from individuals using weapons that can be acquired over the counter.”
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