
California-based Prince Harry has been allowed by the High Court to move forward with a suit against the Home Office for denying him Metropolitan Police bodyguards during trips to the United Kingdom from North America.
Harry is challenging a February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures, also called Ravec that made it clear to the Duke that he would not be given the same degree of personal protection when visiting the country.
Reportedly, Prince Harry wanted to pay the specialist Metropolitan Police officers for the protection of his family and himself. However, the Home Office lawyer, in a previous hearing, argued that the Police officers cannot be bought.
Read More:UK's Prince Harry seeks right to pay for UK police protection
A full high court hearing to follow
However, on Friday, the High Court judge noted, “The application for permission to apply for judicial review is allowed in part and refused in part.”
The court decided to allow Harry and his counsel to argue on four out of the five grounds; meaning, there will be a proper and full high court hearing. The one ground that Harry has been rejected on is his counsel's insistence to identify the members of theRavec, which would have certainly included a Royal member that made the final call on Harry's security.
“In the course of submissions, it became apparent that, while the claimant may have had disagreements with persons who were Ravec committee members, there was no evidence at all to support a claim that any committee member had approached decisions with a closed mind, or that either decision was affected by bias. Ultimately it was accepted for the claimant that no such case was, or could be, advanced.” the judge further added.
What happened with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?
Harry and Meghan had a bitter and very public divorce from the Royal family. Both decided to drop their royal names and shifted to America. Since then, living as private citizens, the couple has signed multi-million deals with streaming giants such as Netflix and Spotify.
Read More:Prince Harry shares the moment he realised Meghan was 'soulmate'
Both appeared in an interview with Oprah Winfrey as well where Meghan made the sensational claims that there were racist Royals in Britain's top family.
(With inputs from agencies)
WATCH WION LIVE HERE: