Queen’s aide who clashed with Harry steps down
‘I am honoured to have served two monarchs through historic times’
A SENIOR palace aide who incurred the wrath of Prince Harry has stepped down as joint principal private secretary to the King.
Sir Edward Young was blamed by Harry for the late Queen’s refusal to allow him and Meghan to work as part-time royals.
And they clashed over the Government’s reluctance to agree to them having permanent taxpayerfunded police protection in the UK.
He has been given a peerage, becoming Lord Young, and has left the Royal Household after 19 years service.
Sir Edward, 56, who had previously worked as an adviser to William Hague when he was Conservative leader, joined the Royal Household as assistant private secretary to the Queen in September 2004 and served as her closest aide from 2017 until her death.
His departure was expected after the change of reign. But he agreed to stay on until after the Coronation to help the King and his aides adjust to their new roles following the death of Queen Elizabeth in September last year.
In his time at the palace he has been a lynchpin but
Harry, 38, made clear his disdain for his late grandmother’s private secretary. In his memoir Spare, published in January, he railed against Sir Edward labelling him The Bee, and other aides who, he believed, plotted against him. But other sources insisted they were following the wishes of the late Queen, Charles and Prince William.
“The Bee was oval-faced and fuzzy and tended to glide around with great equanimity and poise as if he was a boon to all,” he wrote. “He was so poised that people didn’t fear him. Big mistake. Sometimes their last mistake.” Harry wrote that he was presented with five options for the future when he arrived at Sandringham for a summit in January 2020 after he and Meghan had decided to quit.
But Sir Edward already had a statement drafted and printed with only one option.
In court witness statements last month the Duke of Sussex complained that Sir Edward failed to support him in his efforts to take legal action against newspapers over alleged phone hacking.
In July, Harry’s barrister Shaheed Fatima KC, told the High Court that Sir Edward should not have been involved in a decision to deny the Duke and Duchess of Sussex permanent police protection when they were in the UK because there were “significant tensions” between her client and him.
Lord Young said yesterday: “I am honoured to have served two sovereigns through historic times.”