This week, the British media announced that Prince Harry, Meghan and their two children plan to visit the UK next month. Most of the visit is about the Invictus One Year to Go events in Birmingham, but people obviously expect King Charles to at least spend a little bit of time with his grandkids. Throughout all of the discussion, there have been questions about security and whether Harry would bring Meghan and the kids to the UK if he wasn’t completely sure that they could be safe. RAVEC and the Home Office have still not made any kind of ruling on whether the Sussexes would get “automatic” security whenever they’re in the UK. But the Sun has just reported something interesting – Harry has apparently received assurances from his father that the Sussex family will have security, and Charles will pick up whatever extra cost there is.
Harry and Meghan will jet to the UK with their kids after King Charles offered to help cover their security arrangements, it is claimed. The Home Office has still granted taxpayer-funded round-the-clock armed police protection for their trip next month.
A review of the threat level posed to the couple has been ongoing and has not led to a change in security arrangements. But the King is believed to have intervened to offer his own resources so the couple can bring their two children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, over for their first visit in four years.
Harry, who stepped back from royal duties when he moved to California, lost a legal case against the Home Office last year when it downgraded his security. He later said it was not safe to bring his family to the UK. But this week a “safe return” for a five-day visit was said to now be possible after “changes” to security arrangements.
However, sources said the Government’s Royal and VIP Executive Committee had not upgraded its threat level. A Government spokesman said of its protective security system: “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.”
Buckingham Palace and the Sussexes, scheduled to be at Harry’s Invictus Games in Birmingham, declined to comment.
First thing: this is all about face-saving for RAVEC and the Home Office, not to mention Buckingham Palace. As I said, Harry has them over a barrel, and they’re terrified about what Harry would do or say if they rejected his family’s security needs outright. This arrangement sounds like a completely typical – meaning “half-assed” – British arrangement to save face at an institutional level while still providing security. Second thing: this arrangement, with the sovereign basically intervening and picking up any additional security costs, is exactly what Queen Elizabeth did for the Sussexes when they visited twice in 2022. That is exactly what Harry had argued in his lawsuits as well, and this has been his position since 2022 – that his father could easily intervene, just as QEII did, to assure the Sussex family’s security. Charles never “intervened” before because he’s a rotten old man who wanted to keep the Sussexes away and/or put them in as much danger as possible.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
