PRINCE Harry, who is based in the United States (US), is appealing to the courts in the United Kingdom (UK), after the government refused to allow him police protection paid for out of his own pocket, arguing the decision means he cannot return home.

Harry and wife Meghan lost their UK taxpayer-paid protection when they quit frontline royal duties in 2020 and moved to the US. Now living in California, they have their own private security team.

Legal papers showed he argued that the US team will not have adequate powers to protect his family in the UK.

The Duke of Sussex is seeking a judicial review in London, after the Interior Ministry declined his request to pay himself for UK police protection, said Britain’s PA news agency today.

“The UK will always be Prince Harry’s home and a country in which he wants his wife and children to be safe,” said a legal representative for the duke in a statement to PA.

“With the lack of police protection comes too great a personal risk.”

Last summer, Harry’s car was chased by paparazzi as he left a charity event in London. The next day, he and elder brother William unveiled a statue of their late mother, Princess Diana.

Diana died after a high-speed car chase, also involving photographers, in Paris in 1997, and Harry’s relations with the UK media remain fraught.

The legal representative noted that the duke has served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and said “in recent years, his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats”.

A UK government spokesman refused to comment on any legal proceeding, but said its protective security for VIPs is “rigorous and proportionate”.

“It is our long-standing policy to not provide detailed information on those arrangements. To do so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”

Meanwhile, Harry’s uncle Prince Andrew is facing calls to pay for his own security after he was stripped of his military titles, in the fallout of a US civil case alleging sexual assault. – AFP, January 16, 2022.