Prince Harry has made a surprise appearance at the Royal Courts of Justice in London after secretly travelling to the UK – and brushed off any questions about King Charles. It comes as he is set to hear an appeal in his legal challenge over his security arrangements while visiting the UK.
As Harry arrived at the central London court this morning, he waved as he entered but did not speak to reporters gathered outside. He wore a dark suit with a blue patterned tie and walking through Bell Yard, he did not reply as a reporter asked, “Did you speak to your dad?”
It emerged that Harry arrived in the UK just hours before his father, the King, travelled to Italy for a historic state visit. The Duke of Sussex is said to have landed in London on Sunday, meaning that Harry’s time in the UK has overlapped with his father, whom he last saw more than a year ago when it was first announced that the monarch had been diagnosed with cancer.
However, MailOnline reports that the estranged pair did not meet up as the King spent his weeknd at his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire before flying to Rome from RAF Brize Norton with Queen Camilla on Monday afternoon.
Harry also visited the UK without meeting his father in May last year, during a trip to celebrate his Invictus Games. He said at the time that he hoped to see his father “soon” after the King’s “full programme” meant a reunion was not then possible. Harry and Charles’s relationship was strained during the period the duke stepped down as a working royal and moved to the US with wife Meghan and their family.
In court this morning, Harry then sat in the back row behind his barristers and next to his solicitor. He sat with a notepad, pen and a bottle of water. Harry is challenging the dismissal of his High Court legal action against the Home Office over the decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the country.
During a previous hearing at the High Court over his security arrangements, it was told that Harry believes his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet cannot “feel at home” in the UK if it is “not possible to keep them safe” there. It has previously been reported that the issue of Harry’s security has contributed to the already strained relationship between the Duke and his family. According to Harry’s friends, his calls to his father regarding the issue have gone “unanswered”, but sources close to the King have said that it would be “wholly inappropriate” for him to intervene.
Opening the Duke of Sussex’s case at the Court of Appeal, his barrister Shaheed Fatima KC said: “When Ravec made its February 2020 decision about the appellant’s protective security, it did not apply its own terms of reference to that decision-making process.” She continued to say Ravec did not get an assessment from an “expert specialist body called the risk management board, or the RMB” and came up with a different and so-called ‘bespoke process'”.
She said: “The appellant does not accept that ‘bespoke’ means ‘better’. In fact, in his submission, it means that he has been singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment. Not only does this bespoke process not involve the RMB, it also involves Ravec considering the reason why the appellant is attending a particular event, even though that is plainly irrelevant to the question of security.”
In written submissions to the Court of Appeal, Ms Fatima also said: “This appeal concerns the most fundamental right: to safety and security of person.”
She continued: “On January 8 2020, (the Duke of Sussex) 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.” Ms Fatima later said that Harry was “not in a position to make any informed representations to Ravec.”
Last year, retired High Court judge Sir Peter Lane ruled that Ravec’s decision, taken in early 2020 after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit as senior working royals, was not irrational or procedurally unfair. The Home Office, which has legal responsibility for the committee’s decisions, is opposing the appeal, with its lawyers previously telling the High Court that decisions were taken on a “case-by-case” basis.
The Court of Appeal hearing before Sir Geoffrey Vos, Lord Justice Bean and Lord Justice Edis is due to be heard over two days, with a decision expected in writing at a later date. Ravec has delegated responsibility from the Home Office over the provision of protective security arrangements for members of the royal family and others, with involvement from the Metropolitan Police, the Cabinet Office and the royal household.
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In February 2020, the body decided that the duke and his family should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the country, after they moved to the US. After Harry took legal action the following year, the High Court heard in 2023 that an offer from Harry to pay for security himself had been refused, with the duke’s lawyers claiming he “does not feel safe” when visiting under the new security arrangements.
Barristers for the Home Office, which is legally responsible for Ravec’s decisions, claimed that the committee decided that Harry would not be provided protective security “on the same basis as before” due to him no longer being a working member of the royal family and living abroad most of the time, and that decisions were taken on a “case-by-case” basis.
Sir Peter dismissed Harry’s claim in February last year, and initially denied him permission to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal. But the appeal court gave him the green light to challenge the decision in June last year, and ordered earlier this month that parts of the hearing concerning “confidential facts” should be held in private, meaning the press and public cannot attend.
Harry’s trip to the UK comes amid him being embroiled in a bitter war of words over his African charity Sentebale, which he dramatically quit almost two weeks ago. The orgnaniation is now the subject of a case by the Charity Commission. Harry described the past week’s events, which have included the chairwoman of the Sentebale charity levelling accusations of bullying and harassment in a bid to remove her, as “heartbreaking to witness”.
Several trustees have left the charity in a dispute with its chairwoman, Sophie Chandauka, having requested her resignation. Harry and fellow founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho backed the departing trustees and announced they had resigned as patrons until further notice last week.
Meanwhile, Harry’s case at the Royal Courts of Justice also coincides with the second day of Charles and Camilla’s second day of their state visit to Italy. Today they will watch a flypast of jets from the aerobatic teams of the UK and Italy when their state visit begins in earnest.
Charles and Camilla will be officially welcomed to Italy by the country’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and his daughter Laura Mattarella at his official residence the Quirinale Palace in Rome. During the ceremonial greeting the UK and Italy’s defence co-operation will be marked by a joint flypast over the capital by the Italian air force’s aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, and the RAF’s Red Arrows.
The president and the King will hold a private meeting while the statesman’s daughter, who acts as the first lady, will show the Queen a selection of antique books on horsemanship in the Biblioteca del Piffetti and tour the state rooms.
Later the King and Queen, who are making a four-day state visit to Italy which began on Monday, will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Altare della Patria, Rome’s large national monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy.
As the royals get back to their normal duties after a difficult year, the Mirror has launched its very own Royal WhatsApp community where you’ll get all the latest news on the UK’s most famous family.
We’ll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in.
All you have to do to join is click on this link, select ‘Join Chat’ and you’re in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group.
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