Prince Harry’s battle for armed police protection has intensified with his new move.
In a new letter sent by the Duke of Sussex’s legal team to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood this month, Harry requested her to take central role in determining whether he and his family should receive taxpayer-funded security.
According to GB News, in the letter, the estranged Royal has taken aim at the UK security chief, claiming that the chair of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC) kept information about a terrorist plot hidden from him despite being fully aware of the situation.
The Duke alleged that despite him residing in the US at the time, officials were not told about the threat, leaving him and his family dangerously exposed.
As per the letter, the FBI reportedly warned Harry’s security team about an alleged al-Qaeda threat against him back in 2023.
The information was shared through Five Eyes Intelligence channels, the Duke claims the UK never informed him.
Harry’s latest claims come amid his ongoing battle to secure taxpayer-funded security for himself, his wife Meghan Markle, and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, during their stay in the UK.
Since stepping down from their positions as senior working royals, the Sussexes were refused to be granted public security, which is reserved only for the working members of the Royal Family.
Upon his recent return to the UK with family for an “extended period,” Harry was refused permission to hire armed police officers as his private guards.
While in the US, Prince Harry had armed protection, but this is not the case for him in the UK, as the Duke is also not allowed to arrange the armed protection himself, even if he offers to cover the costs, as police protection is controlled by the authorities and cannot simply be privately purchased.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, an insider shared, "His security team cannot even carry a cricket bat as a means of defence - all they’d have is angry rhetoric and their physical strength if someone attacked him or his family. With his return home, the game has changed: the first duty of a government is to protect its citizens and that includes Harry, his wife and his children.”
"It’s not about the role he has here - it’s about the risk he and his family face, and he cannot simply stop being the son of the King,” they added.
It is worth mentioning that both al-Qaeda and the Taliban have repeatedly targeted Harry with threats, which intensified following the publication of his memoir Spare in 2023, where he claimed to have killed 25 Taliban fighters during his military service in Afghanistan.
