bitchy | Prince Harry will likely get security in the UK following a risk assessment

In early December, the Home Office finally agreed to do a “security risk assessment” on Prince Harry. Harry had repeatedly requested a risk assessment for years because nothing had been done on that front since 2019. In early 2020, the Sussex family’s security was suddenly yanked, most likely as an explicit punishment for Harry’s lawsuits against the press and his demands for an investigation into Prince William’s staff. When QEII was alive, she created a makeshift security arrangement for the Sussexes, but after her death, Harry’s father has blocked Harry from receiving any kind of police protection for any of his visits. That’s what all of Harry’s many lawsuits were about, and ultimately, those lawsuits failed because the courts backed up the king’s position, and Ravec’s position, that Harry doesn’t “deserve” security just for being a high-value target for extremists and terrorists. Well, according to the Daily Mail, the Home Office has decided that Harry is deserving of protection.

Prince Harry has won his fight for automatic taxpayer-funded armed police protection when he visits the UK, according to sources close to the Sussexes. A ruling in the duke’s favour, expected to be announced within weeks, could allow for a reunion between King Charles and his grandchildren Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, who live in the US.

Sources close to the Sussexes told The Mail on Sunday that the reinstatement of armed security has been assured after a fresh risk assessment was carried out for the royal and VIP executive committee (Ravec). They said: ‘It’s now a formality. Sources at the Home Office have indicated that security is now nailed on for Harry.’

The decision to reassess the risk followed a letter the duke wrote to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in September calling for such a reappraisal. His lawyers have argued that the withdrawal of security has left his life ‘at stake’. In the letter, he asked Ravec, a Home Office committee, to ‘abide by its own rules’, which state that the risk-management board should assess each member of the Royal Family and other qualifying VIPs every year.

According to sources, risk management board members have now decided that the duke does meet the threshold for protection – leaving Ravec with little choice but to approve his request. A source said on Saturday: ‘The only thing that could scupper his approval now would be an intervention from the Palace.’

That, however, seems increasingly unlikely given signs of rapprochement between the duke and his father. Charles is said to be very keen to meet his Californian-based grandchildren on home soil again. The King last met Archie and Lilibet when they visited the UK as part of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in February 2022. At that time Archie was two and Lilibet was six months old.

A source close to the Sussexes said: ‘We aren’t taking anything for granted. Obviously given he’s the King’s son it is the right thing to do, but it’s about everyone being able to save face and the risk management board is the common-sense way to do that.’

Harry has always claimed that the correct procedure was not followed when he and his 44-year-old wife Meghan were stripped of their automatic right to police protection on return trips to Britain.

A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If you knew about the kind of threats Harry and his children have been getting then you would understand why he doesn’t want to bring the kids over until police protection is granted.’

Meghan is not expected to join Harry on a visit to the UK next month, when he is set to give evidence in a court case involving Associated Newspapers.

A spokesman for the Sussexes said: ‘We can’t comment on security matters.’ A government spokesman 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.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“The only thing that could scupper his approval now would be an intervention from the Palace” combined with “it’s about everyone being able to save face and the risk management board is the common-sense way to do that.” Yeah – Harry has no illusions. He understands completely that his father and his father’s courtiers have put the Sussex family in very real danger for years, and Charles would continue to do so as long as people were covering up his activities behind the scenes. Now that Harry put it in the Home Office’s hands and went public so dramatically last year with his BBC interview, it’s more difficult for Charles’s people to keep screwing Harry over on the security issue. I also believe that previous Tory Home Secretaries have advocated for Harry, for the Sussexes and for risk assessments before now. But it hasn’t gotten done until now, until a Labour government.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.