On Tuesday, Justice Chamberlain from London’s High Court rejected Prince Harry’s legal bid against the British government to privately fund his own police protection while in the United Kingdom. The judge denied Prince Harry permission to seek a judicial review of the government’s refusal to allow him to personally pay for his own police and security arrangements.
The British government initially stripped Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, of taxpayer-funded police protection following the pair’s decision to step down as senior members of the royal family in 2020. But Harry legally disputed the decision, filing a claim for a judicial review against the ruling in September 2021.
In court this week, Harry’s legal team argued there is precedent for legislative means allowing for the payment of “special police services” and that “payment for policing is not inconsistent with the public interest or public confidence in the Metropolitan Police Service,” BBC reports.
However, lawyers for the Home Office shared that the rejection of an individual’s offer of private payments was a matter of policy, and opposed the idea that a “wealthy person should be permitted to ‘buy’ protective security.”
Although Prince Harry’s bid for judicial review has been denied, his legal battle for U.K. police protection is not finished. The prince has already won his bid for a full judicial review against the Home Office for its decision-making process over his security in the country. In addition, his lawyers can appeal today’s ruling.
“The U.K. will always be Prince Harry’s home and a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in… With the lack of police protection comes too great a personal risk,” a spokesperson for Prince Harry said in a written statement last year. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex personally fund a private security team for their family, yet that security cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the UK. In the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home.”
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