Prince Harry was unfairly treated when stripped of UK security detail, says lawyer

Prince Harry was unfairly treated when the UK government stripped him of his British security detail, his attorney told appeals court judges on Tuesday.

Harry, who made a rare appearance in court for the hearing, lost his government-funded protection in February 2020 after he stepped down from his role as a working member of the royal family and moved to the US.

While a High Court judge ruled last year that the government panel’s decision to provide “bespoke” security on an as-needed basis was not unlawful, irrational or unjustified, Harry’s attorney, Shaheed Fatima, argued that a group that evaluated the Duke of Sussex’s security needs failed to follow its own process and perform a risk management assessment.

“The appellant does not accept that bespoke means better,” Fatima said. “In fact, in his submission, it means that he has been singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment.”

Harry, whose titles include the Duke of Sussex, was wearing a navy blue suit and light blue tie as he sat behind his lawyer. His surprise appearance was an indication of the case’s importance to him.

Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, has bucked royal family convention by taking the government and tabloid press to court, where he has a mixed record.

But Harry rarely shows up to court, making only a few appearances in the past two years. That included the trial of one of his phone hacking cases against the British tabloids when he was the first senior member of the royal family to enter the witness box in more than a century.