Reporting from the Court of Appeal
EPAThe Duke of Sussex has lost a legal challenge over the levels of security he and his family are entitled to while in the UK.
Prince Harry had been seeking to overturn a decision that had downgraded his security after he stopped being a working royal and moved to the US with the Duchess of Sussex.
His lawyers had argued that he had been “singled out” for “inferior treatment”, but the court ruling upheld that there had been nothing unlawful about how the decision had been reached.
On Friday, a senior judge ruled that Prince Harry’s “sense of grievance” over how the decision to alter his security was reached did not amount to a basis for a successful appeal.
The dispute between Prince Harry and the government arose after he and Meghan stepped back from frontline royal duties in January 2020 and moved overseas.
Prince Harry has previously said that worries about safety have prevented him from coming to the UK and bringing his wife and children.
This latest legal challenge saw the prince argue in court that the government committee responsible for planning security for the royals did not consider the particulars of his circumstances properly.
However, three senior judges at the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal.
Sir Geoffrey Vos, the Master of the Rolls, said Prince Harry had made “powerful and moving arguments” and that it was “plain that [he] felt badly treated by the system”.
He continued: “But I concluded having studied the detailed documents I could not say the duke’s sense of grievance translated into a legal argument for a challenge to Ravec’s decision.”
Harry’s long-running legal battle
The roots of Friday’s ruling stretch all the way back to Prince Harry’s high-profile decision to step back from his role as a senior royal and emigrate with his family.
The prince challenged the decision-making process used by a committee called the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), which authorises security for senior royals on behalf of the Home Office.
Ravec had concluded that because Prince Harry was going to be an infrequent visitor to the UK, his security needs would be assessed on a case by case basis.
Prince Harry’s legal team have argued that Ravec did not properly re-assess the threats he faced when considering his situation in 2020.
While Prince Harry does still get police protection in the UK, but it is not automatic and he has to give plenty of notice of visits.
He has argued that the level of security he is entitled to could expose him and his family to danger.
