Former Met Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu has said the government needs to reinstate police protection for Prince Harry and his family.
The government is now under pressure to give taxpayer-funded security to the prince, 41, his wife Meghan, 45, and their children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, who landed back in Britain on Wednesday.
Mr Basu served as the national head of counter-terrorism policing and Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations in the Metropolitan Police from March 2018 until his retirement in November 2022 and used to sit on the Ravec committee.
Threat risk has not reduced
He said: "In 2019, [Prince Harry] was one of very few people we thought needed the full package. In 2026, he doesn't. I have never been able to see how his threat risk has reduced.
"Whether you like him or you don't and I'm quite sick of listening to people, including everybody I know, pretending they know him, they don't.
"He's a fundamentally really decent man who is trying to do the right thing by his wife and two children. In my experience, the independent chair listens to the home secretary, who listens to the prime minister, who listens to the head of state... I'll leave it there."
Mr Basu added: "It was my units who protected him and the rest of the royal family and the VIPs. It was my units that investigated the allegations of threats to kill against him and Meghan from the extreme right-wing, Islamist extremist threats against him, as well as extreme right-wing threats against him for marrying a mixed-race woman and being declared a race traitor."
"I used to protect him by being the head of protection. Effectively it was my units who protected him and the rest of the royal family and the VIPs.
"So, I know a lot about that. It was my units that investigated the allegations of threats to kill against him and Meghan from the extreme right-wing, two of which are serving seven years for that offence, probably about to be early released, or out now."
Safety without police protection
Asked if he thinks Harry and his family are safe living in the UK without police protection, Mr Basu said: "They obviously wouldn't be as safe as being given police protection because I know the standard and calibre of close protection would be at a very high level.
"And of course, the difference between the kind of security he can have as a private citizen and the kind of security he can have as a police officer is our protection officers are armed and he isn't going to have an armed response.
"And given that he both served his country, he has both been one of the most vilified members of the public and is one of the most famous people in the world."
Harry and Meghan lost their right to automatic, taxpayer-funded, round-the-clock police security in February 2020 after stepping down as senior working members of the British Royal Family and moving to the US.
In February 2025 Harry lost a case at the High Court, which concluded the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, an independent body overseen by the Home Office known as Ravec, was right to downgrade his high-level police protection when he is back in the country.
In May 2025, Harry took his case to the Court of Appeal, but after a two-day hearing Judge Sir Geoffrey Vos told the court that while the duke's safety concerns were moving, his sense of grievance did not translate into a legal argument. Then in December, Harry won the right to a new government review by Ravec, which is yet to be carried out.
With the Prime Minister, his nine living predecessors and some royals already receiving such protection, it is understood the decision has been delayed by a lack of resources. The Home Office says security for Harry is considered on a case-by-case basis.
Working royal status and security costs
Mr Basu said: "Effectively, his case hinges on whether he's a working royal or not. The government have made a precedent since 2019, since they removed his protection, that if you're not a working royal, you don't get. And what they don't want is have to deliver full protection to other non-working royals.
"If he becomes a working royal again, they'd give it back. I think that's the position they're in. They're not really counting threat, his vulnerability, and risk, unless he's a working royal, they're treating him as a private citizen.
"What I would say is his threat and risk given that he'll never be a private citizen, he'll never be you or me. He's what, you know, fifth in line to the throne, a duke and a member of the royal family, recognised wherever he goes, subject to lots of fixated threat assessment stuff, individuals who are very difficult to see or stop. And the more people decide that he's not at risk and report that way, I worry the more his threat will increase.
"Are they actually waiting for an attack or are they waiting for that threat to come in? I think with somebody like him, you have to understand that the guy is always going to be at risk and he's not going to get the proper kind of protection without full protection."
Mr Basu added: "The £5million cost, I think people have also forgotten that he offered in his court case, he offered as a private principal to pay his own security costs.
"There's a good reason why the government and policing and the royal household can't accept that. We can't have private people deciding to pay for armed police protection.
"That precedent would never be allowed, but it's not like he wanted the taxpayer to pay. He was prepared to pay himself. He's just not going to be allowed to do that.
"Which leaves him slightly literally between a rock and a hard place is that whatever protection he gets for himself will not be armed protection and he will have to take other precautions to make sure that he's not vulnerable.
"A lot of which will make it very difficult for him to do his day job, which will be supporting charities in public which are highly publicised events where he'll be turning up in and every protection officer I know wants to make sure those places are locked down before their principal gets anywhere near them.
"And that's what his team will have to do, but they'll have to do it without the technical sophistication and the armed capability of the Met. I think it's a mistake. I think it would have been cheaper to just give it to him than all of this case by case."
Mr Basu made it clear he has sympathy for Harry, whose mother Prince Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. He said: "People say 'You're incredibly fortunate to be born a royal'.
"I've never felt so sorry for anyone in my life. It's an incredibly intrusive place and you know as well as I do, having protection is one of the most intrusive things. He only wants it because he's genuinely in fear of his life and his wife and two children."
Former royal protection head calls for review
Mr Basu spoke out after the Royal Family's former head of protection, Dai Davies, last week told the Mirror the Sussexes' security must be looked at, fast.
He said: "The whole risk assessment will have to be reviewed. I wonder, given the short notice, has anybody worked it out for them? Because even me, who has been very opposed to him getting protection as a non-royal, now I think the whole scenario is changing.
"His address is going to be known, and obviously the issue regarding his children and going to school is going to be another area where you've got to look at security."
Speaking about the security now needed to protect the Sussexes, including their children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, Mr Davies added: "It's going to cost a huge amount. If they've found a premises, that's got to be brought up to date in terms of security and I know how expensive that can be.
"It's not just securing the windows and doors - it's the technical things, the safe room that has to go in and so on. And then you've got vehicles.
"An armoured car comes in at about half a million pounds for the top end. The cost of protecting a family of four now, their home visits, their quasi-royal events, the whole thing is going to cost millions, so something has to be decided by somebody with the current up-to-date knowledge and information."
Asked about what security will be needed at Archie and Lilibet's school, he said: "If you recall, at different times, William and Harry both had people like [royal protection officer] Ken Wharfe there at that time.
"They would go to the school and they would have officers based at the school ready to respond."
As for whether taxpayers would actually have to pick up the bill, Mr Davies said: "That will be a decision for Ravec."
Harry, who raised security risks for himself by writing in his 2023 memoir Spare that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan, now plans to continue to lobby Ravec to complete an urgent review into his security, after he sent the department a report from his private security company claiming he is a terror target. A 40-page risk assessment compiled at the Home Office's request suggested he faced an elevated risk in the UK, where five of six known terror plots against him originated. At least four individuals responsible for those threats are thought to be out of prison, with their whereabouts unknown.
Mr Davies added: "The problem is that Harry is no longer a working royal and no other non-working royal gets protection. But he can say 'I'm unique', which he is, because of his war service and because of his big mouth."
PM Andy Burnham said yesterday of the royals' security: "It's a matter for Harry and for Meghan, and we wish them well in the move that they are making."
