Prince Harry’s legal team has announced he will file a new lawsuit regarding his proposal to pay for his police protection. The Duke of Sussex is suing the British government for dismissing his Metropolitan Police bodyguards. According to Harry, he, wife Meghan Markle, and their children Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor can’t return to Britain safely without them.
In a July 7 hearing to determine whether his current case should proceed, Harry and his team argued that he should have known some of the Queen’s aides were taking part in the decision, given his tensions with various royal officials, Newsweek reported.
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His team then revealed that Harry is planning a second “judicial review” concerning the decision not to allow private citizens to pay for Metropolitan Police protection. After filing his first case for police bodyguards in December, the Home Office’s Royalty and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) were asked to review the issue, according to Newsweek.
“On Dec. 21, 2021, [The Home Office] asked RAVEC to determine in principle whether an individual whose position had been determined by RAVEC not to justify Protective Security should be permitted to receive Protective Security but to reimburse the public purse for the cost of that security,” Harry’s team stated in its July 7 court filing.
“On Jan. 24, 2022, RAVEC took the decision that State security should not be available on a privately financed basis.” This decision will be the focus of the second lawsuit.
The filing added, “[Prince Harry] has engaged in pre-action correspondence for a proposed second judicial review claim in relation to these matters, and intends to issue that claim shortly.” The London High Court hearing revealed that old tensions between Harry and the Royal Household resurfaced during the first lawsuit.
As a result of the legal action, the duke learned that Queen Elizabeth II’s private secretary Sir Edward Young had not informed RAVEC that he had offered to pay for his police protection. As a result of “tensions” with specific individuals, Harry’s lawyers said he should have been informed Young and other senior Royal Household staff were members of the committee. A court filing read, “There has been no explanation of why the offer was not conveyed.”
The meeting described in the filing took place at Sandringham on Jan. 13, 2020, and included the Queen, Prince Charles, and Prince William, as well as palace staff. In their court filing, Harry’s legal team stated that Harry should have been fully advised about the composition of RAVEC, including who participated in its decision-making, such as The Royal Household (“TRH”), Newsweek reported.
“He should have been given the opportunity to make direct representations to RAVEC as a body to ensure that all his points were fully and properly communicated to RAVEC; he should have been informed about the RAVEC Policy/how it was applied and points being made by others involved in the process, including TRH; and he should have been given an opportunity to respond to those points/make any others he wished, such as whether it was appropriate for TRH/certain individuals to be involved in making the Decision.”
In response, Home Office lawyers rejected the argument, saying tensions within the household had no bearing on the decision. In their court filing, they stated that “[Prince Harry] now refers to objections he might have made to any role being played by officials of the Royal Household in RAVEC’s decision-making (apparently because of personal tensions he felt with them), but there is no bias challenge, and any such tensions are irrelevant to the undisputed fact of [Prince Harry’s] change in status which led to the decision of RAVEC.”
If Harry wins, the case will be heard in detail at a later date. If he loses, he can appeal. The decision on whether the current case should move forward was reserved and should be decided by the end of July at the latest.
