Duke of Sussex security to be reviewed

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The Duke of Sussex lost his argument in the Court of Appeal in May for automatic taxpayer security: the current arrangement is that his security needs are assessed on a case-by-case basis provided he gives notice.

He has recently been in touch with the new Home Secretary, and the latest update is that RAVEC has asked its Risk Management Board (RMB) to reassess his threat level.

Telegraph archive link

Any headline on Harry getting more taxpayer funding really is irritating.

Harry needs to stay under the radar. Trump is apparently eyeing Colombia now that he's interfered with Venezuela. Trump is also interfering with Nigeria. These are two countries that Harry "toured". Now Harry is trying to interfere in a UK diplomatic tour with KC. The optics don't look good. He should lay low for awhile.

<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/2026.01.04-180945/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/04/prince-harry-confident-of-winning-back-royal-protection/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://archive.ph/2026.01.04-180945/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/04/prince-harry-confident-of-winning-back-royal-protection/

the telegraph has a slightly different approach to Harry’s security!

I don't know what happened there, @jeffgoldblum, but it says "Page not found"??

Edited to add I just googled it and this link seems to work: https://archive.md/RhG3z

Thanks @Puzzledandpissedoff , I’m notoriously bad at archiving links! 😳 , normally Empress comes to my aid or another helpful poster! 🤣

KC3 is a sitting Head of State. Whenever he sets foot in the USA he gets US taxpayer funded Secret Service diplomatic security. To misuse those resources for an unnecessary personal visit to an unemployed H, would irk both the US government and the US taxpayer.

This is why H's super supporters endlessly echo the false claim that H offered to pay for security (the judgement in H's lawsuit against ANL clearly states that H did not submit his alleged offer to pay in writing). And furthermore, falsely claim that it would be the "UK taxpayer" that would pay for H in California.

Even they know that US taxpayers undergoing a cost-of-living crisis would erupt in fury at paying for H.

Why is no one pointing out that it isn't up to the Home Office, it's up to RAVEC? I can why the government are being diplomatic but ultimately what all these articles are ignoring is that nothing has changed.

Yes, and Meghan didn’t want to film her show in their own home because of the disruption, however Harry is happy to have secret service crawling all over their property for days in advance of the visit and again during the visit.

I don’t think he is @Thedom , Harry knows this isn’t going to happen, it’s just another pr exercise to pass the Buck.

I agree @jeffgoldblum , it’s clear it’s emotional blackmail and another manufactured opportunity to try to show the King as uncaring, ‘oh look he is here in the US and didn’t come to see his grandchildren’. I mean it’s not like he will be there on a golfing or surfing holiday.

Exactly @Thedom , he really thinks we are all as gullible and stupid as him doesn’t he? , I find it really quite irritating 😠

What’s the American equivalent to a Daily Mail sad face?

Harry's stupid 'case' was against the Home Secretary, so I think the HO is ultimately responsible for security decisions.

The Telegraph article says that the authorities refused to comment on the rumours, as you would expect. Obviously you get leaks even from even the most high level offices, but I do think most if not all of the recent nonsense is from the Sussex side. There have been zero leaks from RAVEC over the past two or whatever years that all this stupidity has been ongoing, so it seems they run a pretty tight ship. This is all the Dook and Dookess.

I agree with whoever said above that nobody genuinely concerned about their security would behave the way that Harry and Meghan do. This is about ego and spite, not security.

The Home Office must be a bunch of clowns if Harry has been given tax payer security on the basis of his so called “Stalker” 🙄 the member of the Sussex squad who Harry happily poses for pictures with.

Or is this an indication that (regardless of what RAVEC protection he is awarded) Meghan is not planning on either herself or her children coming to the UK.

As has been repeatedly said - if they had taken up Charles's invitations to visit him at either Balmoral, Sandringham or Clarence House they would have received full security while there.

The more I think about it , the more I am inclined to Sussex PR sending out things which if denied would look bad.

Does Harry honestly think if his father is on a State visit to the US he can just pop over to Montecito ( & I say this against myself - the US is a Very Big Country - which until I had been a few times I didn't realise the actual scale of it ) It's not like popping up the road from Windsor to Sandringham . ( again I know this now ) And as others have said - how can you put security round their H&M's house for a HoS without huge cost. Well , you can't . But
a) H must have known this from the start.
or
b) He's a blockhead.

Jeremy , b) final answer 😂

It seems to me, MrsLF, that a lot of store's being put on the fact that RAVEC have done an updated review, conveniently ignoring that they do this all the time and that Harry hassling the Home Office doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it

Quite rightly the authorities don't comment on such arrangements, but that offers Harry a chance to deliver his own version without correction, so we'll probably never really know what the provision is ... even if he appears here surrounded by security we won't know what notice was given and so on

If the Sussex sources are correct, perhaps it went like this.
Review meeting held. Decision made that on the evidence available he would currently meet the criteria for protection. Given that there were no exceptional circumstances that we know of, the logical extension of this is that any subsequent risk assessment undertaken on a case by case basis was likely to come to the same conclusion.

Therefore a blanket agreement to provide cover might be appropriate in the interests of saving public money (i.e. by not wasting time on individual risk assessments when the outcome was a foregone conclusion).

Future risk assessments to be stepped up so that his risk status was under regular and frequent review.

Just my guess.

Or is this an indication that (regardless of what RAVEC protection he is awarded) Meghan is not planning on either herself or her children coming to the UK

That's entirely possible, @MrsFinkelstein, but then I no more believe that Meghan would want to revisit the UK than that she ever intended staying here in the first place. IMO this just happened to be where her "big opportunity" was based, and once the fish was hooked the narrative around how awful it all was swung into action

It'll be interesting to see what she does, though, if the Birmingham Invictus thing really happens ...

I’ve never understood why she came to London of all places to shop for a rich husband?!
surely there were more available, more rich prospects in California?

IIRC she has a friend who married a rich English man. & I think it has been said she came over for that purpose - can't give the reference but I think one of her friends has said that was true - So Ashley Cole , rich - who said "she's not my type" I am not sure if she set her cap at Rory McIlroy (the golfer ) who is richer than Harry but if she did I reckon he dodged a bullet - and RM has given more money to charity I believe than H&M . I think H , was a colliding of coincidences and she thought all her Christmases had come at once. But But I am not privy to their relationship. I hope they are very much in love and that she didn't just "bag" him for reasons. I really truly do.

Now I would also say I am sure being a Prince of the Realm at the time didn't count against him 😂

I'm not sure.

We know that Harry, even as a working royal, was never in RAVEC's 'top tier'. That is to say, he was never considered one of those individuals whose role would automatically entitle him to protection, regardless of current risk assessments. Given that he now lives on the other side of the world and does no official duties for the country, I can't see how it could have been concluded that specialist protection officers need to be on permanent standby for him.

Personally, I don't think Harry actually knows what's going on or has gone on in this 'review'. RAVEC would not be providing him with regular updates. He'll be informed of their conclusion once they reach it. My guess is, as others have said, that he's trying to put public pressure on his family through emotional blackmail. The problem is he doesn't realise that nobody really cares about him anymore, and the public would be perfectly happy if he never sets foot in Britain again.

I hope you’re right @IcedPurple. I can’t see any justification for the sort of security arrangement H is after, but I also know that a vexatious VIP can make a lot of waves. Sometimes those for whom the buck stops conclude it’s just not worth the fight.

The only explanation that makes sense to me for Harry’s bizarre existence and lifestyle is that he is in fact an MI6 operative, under the cover of Invictus, and that Meg works for the CIA under the cover of Soho House and being H’s wife.

They use their covers to penetrate levels of power - political, military, diplomatic, ceremonial, financial and social - in countries with oil, opiates and other commodities in countries around the world while acting like utter fools to throw people off the scent.

Sounds entirely plausible! 🤔🤣🤣🤣