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As if the queen hasn’t got enough to contend with, Prince Harry (37) is now threatening legal action against the UK government if they don’t provide him with personal security.
The Duke of Sussex is once again raising eyebrows with his latest demands that he and his family be given police protection if they visit England.
He claims his private security arrangements are not sufficient to ensure his family’s safety and privacy in the UK. He argues they don’t have access to UK intelligence information, which is needed to keep his wife, Meghan (40), and their children, Archie (2) and eight-month-old daughter Lilibet, safe.
Harry says he's willing to pay for specialist police protection himself, rather than burden the British taxpayer with it, however the UK Home Office has ruled this out, which has resulted in him seeking legal action.
His lawyers have already written a “pre-action protocol” letter to the UK Home Office, indicating they will seek a judicial review if the Sussexes are not provided with the security they want.
Experts say the case could lead to a high court battle between ministers and Harry.
In 2020 Harry and Meghan lost their tax-payer funded police protection when they quit the royal family and moved to the US. They now fund their own security.
As a legal representative for the Duke of Sussex explains, “He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats.
“While his role within the institution has changed, his profile as a member of the royal family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family. In the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return home.”
However royal sources have suggested this claim was “completely at odds” with Harry’s suggestion to family members that he would attend a memorial service for his late grandfather, Prince Philip, later this year.
He is also expected to be in the Netherlands in April to launch the postponed 2021 Invictus Games in The Hague.
Sources: mirror.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk
