Prince Harry loses bid to appeal UK security ruling
The United Kingdom’s Prince Harry will not be allowed to appeal the downgrading of his personal security when he visits the country, a court ruled on Monday.
The younger son of King Charles III took legal action after the British government told him in 2020 that he would no longer be given the “same degree” of publicly funded protection when he is in the UK.
The High Court ruled in February that the British government had acted lawfully.
High Court judge Peter Lane said in a 52-page judgment that the “bespoke process” devised for him by a committee, which is under the remit of the interior ministry, “was, and is, legally sound.”
A legal spokesman for Harry said at the time that he would try to turn to the Court of Appeal “to obtain justice.”
A judicial spokesman, however, said on Monday that Harry had lost his initial bid to appeal against the decision.
The prince, formally known as the Duke of Sussex, relocated to North America in 2020 with his wife Meghan Markle, eventually settling in her native California and is no longer classified as a working royal.
Harry told a hearing at High Court in December that security concerns were preventing visits back to Britain.
“The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children,” the prince said in a written statement read out by his lawyers.
“That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe,” he added. “I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way, too.”
Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris in August 1997 as she tried to escape tabloid photographers.
However, lawyers for the government rejected claims that he was “singled out” and treated “less favorably” or that a proper risk analysis was not carried out.
Last May, a judge also sided with the government over its refusal to let him pay for specialist British police protection himself.
The interior ministry argued then that it was “not appropriate” for wealthy people to “buy” protective security when it had decided that it was not in the public interest for such taxpayerfunded protection.
The legal action over his personal security is one of various lawsuits Harry has pursued in recent years in the UK, primarily concerned with alleged phone hacking by newspapers.
Earlier this month, he settled a long-running legal claim against Mirror Group Newspapers.
The prince is also bringing legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail, while he and actor Hugh Grant are also suing News Group Newspapers, part of Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire.