Prince Harry arrives at court to fight downgraded UK police protection ruling

By Christian Edwards and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN

London (CNN) — The Duke of Sussex arrived at a London court on Tuesday to challenge the British government’s decision to downgrade his level of taxpayer-funded security while he is visiting the United Kingdom.

After Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced they were stepping down as working members of the royal family in 2020, the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) decided the couple would no longer be given the “same degree” of protection when in the country.

While he no longer uses the HRH title, Harry is still a member of the British royal family and fifth in line to the throne.

In a rare visit to the UK since moving to California, Harry, the younger son of King Charles, arrived at London’s Court of Appeal for a two-day hearing for the latest developments in his battle with the Home Office, the ministry responsible for the committee. Tuesday’s hearing appeals against a previous UK High Court ruling upholding RAVEC’s decision as lawful.

Upon entering court, the duke took a seat several rows behind his barrister, where he listened to arguments while occasionally taking a sip of water from a bottle in front of him. He is not expected to give evidence during the two-day hearing, and a written ruling is expected at a later date.

The duke’s barristers told the hearing on Tuesday that Harry had been “singled out for different unjustified and inferior treatment” by the committee. Shaheed Fatima KC argued that RAVEC did not follow its own policy when deciding to change his level of security arrangements to a case-by-case basis.

She argued that a risk management board assessment, or RMB, was not carried out for the duke before RAVEC made its February 2020 decision and that “it did not apply its own terms of reference to that decision-making process.” She said decisions should have included expert analysis obtained through the RMB assessments, but instead it opted for “a different and so-called bespoke process.”

In written submissions to the court, Fatima said the duke “and his wife felt forced to step back from the role of full time official working members of the royal family as they considered they were not being protected by the institution, but they wished to continue their duties in support of the late Queen as privately funded members of the royal family,” according to Britain’s PA Media news agency.

James Eadie KC, barrister for the Home Office, told the appeals court’s three judges on Tuesday afternoon that “it was important to emphasize that the decision was not that personal security of the kind previously provided would under no circumstances be provided.”

He continued, “But rather that it was simply that that security would not be provided on the same basis as before because of his change of status and because he was now going to live abroad for the majority of his time.”

He outlined that the decision led to bespoke arrangements for the duke, which better suited the royal.

“We are in territory in which there are no right or wrong answers. There are matters of judgment against necessarily broad and soft-edged criteria … in which the security expertise of those involved is likely be critical,” he told the court.

Eadie is due to continue presenting the UK government’s position on Wednesday morning. Part of the court proceedings on Wednesday will be held in private, without reporters in the room, so that sensitive security arrangements for royal family members and other VIPs can be discussed.

Harry has often voiced his fears over his family’s safety and has been critical of press intrusion which he blames for the death of his mother, Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris.

During the full hearing of Harry’s claim in late 2023, the duke told the court in a statement the UK is “central to the heritage of my children,” Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, and that he wants them to “feel at home” in the UK as much as in the United States.

“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,” his statement said.

Last year, Harry’s legal action against the Home Office was unsuccessful and the court initially refused him permission to appeal. However, the Court of Appeal agreed in June 2024 to hear the duke’s case following a direct application from Harry’s lawyers.

This legal case was one of several that Harry has undertaken in the UK. In January, Harry said he had secured a “monumental victory” by settling his case over allegations of unlawful information gathering conducted by Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group.

The duke had sued News Group Newspapers (NGN) – publisher of British tabloids The Sun and the now-shuttered News of the World – claiming journalists and private investigators working for the publications had targeted him and his family between 1996 and 2011.

Tuesday’s appeal comes shortly after the prince quit as patron of Sentabele, a charity he co-founded in honor of his mother to help young people with HIV and AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana. Sophie Chandauka, the charity’s chair, accused Harry of bullying and misogyny. Harry said he had resigned “in shock” and “heartbroken.” The UK charities watchdog announced last week it had opened a regulatory compliance case.

Harry’s father, King Charles, will not be in the UK during the two-day security arrangements hearing. Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, are on a state visit to Italy, where they received a full ceremonial welcome on Tuesday morning, meeting President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace before viewing a flypast by the Frecce Tricolori and Red Arrows.

This story has been updated with developments.

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CNN’s Max Foster contributed reporting.