© Getty Images
–
Prince Harry has launched legal proceedings to regain police protection when he visits the UK. He wants to pay for it out of his own pocket, so that the British taxpayer does not have to pay for it. The Duke of Sussex and wife Meghan Markle are no longer entitled to police protection after they left the royal family in 2020.
–
The couple lives in California with children Archie and Lilibet. But the prince still crosses the Great Lake to visit the United Kingdom. Things went wrong during such a visit in the summer of 2021. While he was leaving a charity event, his car was chased by British paparazzi.
Harry’s lawyer clarifies that he wants to continue to visit the country with his children, but “that is not possible for him and his family” because it is too dangerous. That is why an appeal has been lodged against a refusal by the Home Office to grant police protection that it pays for itself. His private security team says it does not have sufficient authority abroad, British broadcaster BBC also reports. The appeal was started in September.
Prince Harry inherited a safety risk to life at birth. He remains sixth in line to the throne, and he served in two combat campaigns in Afghanistan. In recent years, his family has been the subject of proven neo-Nazi and extremist threats,” the prince said in a statement.
A government spokesman, meanwhile, said security policies in the UK are “rigorous and proportionate”. The spokesperson declined to go into detail on that security and the legal process.
Pay yourself
Harry’s lawyer clarified that he had proposed to pay for police protection himself in early 2020. But that proposal was rejected. There were then, following the ‘Megxit’, conversations with Queen Elizabeth about the future role of the couple.
—
