Downing Street has indicated that security arrangements for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will remain under review, as Labour politicians call for the couple to receive taxpayer-funded protection during their stay in the UK.
Labour figures urge protection
Former Labour home secretary Lord Blunkett said Harry and Meghan and their children should receive a “medium” level of protection for their stay, which could last as little as six months. Emily Thornberry, Labour chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “They deserve to be secure.”
The Government refused to comment on reports that a secretive committee responsible for decisions about Royal Family security is reviewing an earlier decision to deny Harry security. But the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said: “We do not provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so would compromise their security. But the executive committee for the protection of royalty and public figures keeps protective security for the Royal Family and key public figures in Great Britain under review.”
RAVEC committee role
The committee, known as RAVEC, includes officials from the Home Office, Foreign Office and Cabinet Office, as well as representatives of the Metropolitan Police and the Royal Household. It was previously chaired by Sir Richard Mottram, a former senior civil servant, but his replacement has not been publicly named.
Last year, the Duke of Sussex lost a legal challenge to overturn a RAVEC decision that had downgraded his security after he stopped being a working royal. A reassessment is thought to have concluded, and the Duke is understood to have written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood asking for the results to be shared with him.
Cost estimates and options
Providing security for the family could cost an estimated £5 million annually. However, Lord Blunkett suggested the Sussexes may not need the full package. He described three security options: “There’s the fully blown, blacked-out back-up car with two or three close protection – one in the passenger car and the others in the back-up on a 24-hour basis. There’s then the middle ground, which is security where you have one or two officers who travel with the principal, as they call it. And the third is that they get a driver with security training.”
He added: “I think the middle of that is a perfectly reasonable thing to offer for the time being and then it could be reassessed in a couple of years.”
Labour MP Dawn Butler also voiced support, saying: “Where someone has served their country, faces specific and identifiable security threats, is a member of the Royal Family and is connected to additional risk factors such as sustained racial abuse directed at them or their family, those circumstances should be carefully considered as part of that assessment.”
