Prince Harry has faced a sharp rebuke from a former top UK judge after he and Baroness Doreen Lawrence described a High Court ruling as a 'complete and obvious whitewash'. The Duke of Sussex lost a monumental legal battle against the publishers of the Daily Mail this week, in which he claimed the newspaper had intercepted his voicemail to write stories.
Statement Sparks Judicial Backlash
In a joint statement released on July 7, Harry and Lawrence said: 'Generic findings about various private investigators that were held by the courts in these parallel claims to have carried out unlawful activity at the very same time in relation to similar stories and well-known individuals have been wholly ignored... It is a complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected. However, the lengths to which the court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted.'
The comment drew an immediate response from Lord Burnett of Maldon, who served as head of the judiciary of England and Wales from 2017 to 2023. Speaking in the House of Lords on Thursday, Lord Burnett condemned the 'personal vilification' of judges, which he said 'crosses the line into a direct assault on the independence of the judiciary'.
Lord Burnett Defends Judiciary
Lord Burnett stated: 'An expression of disagreement with the outcome of a case is entirely unobjectionable, but the growth of personal vilification, in which, regrettably, from time to time politicians have joined, crosses the line into a direct assault on the independence of the judiciary. Examples are multiplying, and even this week, a High Court judge has been accused by disappointed litigants of “a complete and obvious whitewash”. Judges speak through their judgments and cannot answer back. That is why the Constitutional Reform Act imposes duties on the Lord Chancellor to defend the independence of the judiciary.'
He added: 'The Committee recognised that a culture of hostility towards the judiciary has been allowed to develop in recent years because of inappropriate, often inaccurate public criticism by politicians and others, with inadequate defence from government.'
Harry's UK Visit Continues
Prince Harry, 41, is currently on a week-long visit to the UK. He appeared in Birmingham on Thursday and is scheduled to attend the one-year countdown event for the 2027 Invictus Games on Friday, July 10. Meghan Markle, who was expected to join him, is reportedly travelling back to the UK this week with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, but none of them will make public appearances. Meghan will not join Harry in Birmingham on Friday, despite having attended many previous Invictus Games events.
