Harry and Meghan revealed UK return to security services weeks before telling King
Prince Harry told the security services about his impending return to the UK before he told the King, the Mirror can reveal.
The royal informed mandarins about the shock move earlier this month in order for them to prepare security measures. His father only found out on Sunday.
The government are now under pressure to give tax-payer funded protection to the prince, his wife Meghan and their children, when they move to the UK later this month. Harry has been waiting for the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, known as RAVEC, to make a decision about his family’s security arrangements for the last nine months.
Meghan previously shared clips of Archie and Lilibet alongside her and Harry(Image: @meghan/Instagram)
It is understood it has been delayed by a lack of resources, with nine former Prime Ministers and members of the royal family already receiving protection. But the Royal Family’s former head of protection Dai Davies says it must now be done urgently as he believes the Sussex’s decision to move back to the UK has changed the landscape.
Mr Davies told the Mirror: “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.
“He’s going to stay in a settled address. 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 the whole issue of security.”
The furore comes as Harry prepares to learn how much he and others, including Elton John and Doreen Lawrence, will have to pay in costs after losing their case against Associated Newspapers on Friday.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Harry and Meghan’s security arrangements are a “private matter”. Speaking on Thursday, Mr Burnham added: “It’s a matter for Harry and for Meghan, and we wish them well in the move that they are making.”
Harry and Meghan previously 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. Harry later lost a case at the High Court in February 2025 which concluded RAVEC, an independent body overseen by the Home Office, was right to downgrade his high-level police protection when he is back in the country.
Dai Davies was head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Command from 1994 to 1998(Image: Daily Record)
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 while the duke’s safety concerns were both “powerful and moving”, his “sense of grievance” did not “translate into a legal argument”. In December, Harry won a new Government review, which is yet to be carried out.
The Home Office has always maintained that Harry’s security is considered on a case-by-case basis, with him required to inform the department of his travel plans at least 28 days in advance. Speaking about the cost and scale of the security now needed to protect the Sussex’s, including their children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, Mr Davies said: “In terms of cost, 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.
“If they spread each other four ways, with two different schools, and Meghan and him getting it, it’s going to cost you and I a huge amount of money. The cost of protecting a family of four now, their home visits, where they’re going, their quasi-royal events, the whole thing is gonna cost millions if we have to pay for it, so something has to be decided by somebody with the current up-to-date knowledge and information.”
Mr Davies added: “Do we, as tax-payers, actually pick it up? I don’t know at this stage. That will be a decision for RAVEC based on the intelligence and information that they will hopefully now get.”
Meghan and her children Archie and Lilibet have spent little time in the UK since they were born(Image: meghan/instagram)
Mr Davies believes the issue is a problem for officials, who have to balance spiralling costs and a lack of resources while also ensuring the safety of Harry, who wrote in his autobiography about killing killed 25 Taliban soldiers while serving with the British army.
In 2022, former Met Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu told how Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, had faced “disgusting” and “very real” threats to her life. And in May a man was charged after allegedly threatening Harry’s uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, previously known as Prince Andrew, during an incident near his home on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
Mr Davies said: “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 and the book he’s written. So there are all manner of things that would have to be now taken into consideration.
“There have been in the past attacks on Harry, when he was much younger, and people have gone to prison for it. The whole issue now is up for grabs.”
Under the current guidelines for Harry, where intelligence indicates a specific threat or where events require it, local police can provide support or specialist assistance. However, this falls well short of the round-the-clock armed Metropolitan Police protection afforded to working royals.
Harry and Meghan previously 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(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Davies believes police officers will be essential in protecting Harry and his family once they move to the UK. He said: “Common sense would say that that’s sensible given the notoriety of the pair of them. The local constabulary and their support structure is so important to the protection and this will have to happen again wherever this house is. The local police clearly will have a response capability. They should be part of the planning in conjunction with his team and all royalty protection, if they’re called on to give advice.”
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.
“Clearly that’s another area where you would have to carry out a proper review structure, look at the security, look at how people can get in and out, look at a contingency plan if anybody got in. It’s a huge measure and there are issues that would have to be carefully considered.”
Mr Davies added: “In my day it was the IRA, or the provisional IRA, and the animal liberation front. Now it’s moved to fixated people and there are a lot of people fixated about Harry and Meghan and that raises the threat level.
“I think Harry will continue to employ his own private security team, but in the hope that he can persuade RAVEC to upgrade in whatever shape or form. I think that’s his hope now he’s going to have a permanent address.”
Harry and Meghan have reportedly already found a house and schools for their children in the UK(Image: Getty Images)
Harry, 41, 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.
He has made several trips back to Britain from his home in Montecito, California, but has been forced to pay for his own private security. A 40-page risk assessment suggested he faced an “elevated risk” in the UK, where five of the six known terror plots against him originated.
At least four individuals responsible for those threats are thought to be out of prison, and their whereabouts are unknown. The report, compiled at the request of the Home Office, said the biggest threat facing Prince Harry was from “lone actors” or “grassroots” terrorists, who often target public figures who receive high levels of negative publicity.
Harry was particularly angered that the government sent him the contact number for a liaison officer for him to call in an emergency, rather than respond to his request for the complete review.
Last month, the Mirror revealed Prince Harry had been buoyed by an emotional reunion with the King and his family who were reunited in person for the first time in four years. Sources revealed Harry wants his father, who is suffering from cancer, to be able to spend more time with his grandchildren, who he he had hardly seen since the Duke and Duchess quit their royal roles in 2020 and moved to California.
Harry and Meghan pictured at the Invictus Games un The Hague in 2022(Image: ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Harry returned for events surrounding the one-year countdown to his Invictus Games being held in Birmingham next summer. But the duke’s hopes of engineering a meeting between his father and his family were initially dashed just 24 hours after revealing his full UK itinerary, which included Meghan joining him on stage at the Invictus event at Birmingham’s The National Exhibition Centre.
He had planned to stay at Buckingham Palace with Meghan and their children, but the King pulled the accommodation suggesting his estranged son had not replied in time to organise suitable staffing to host them at the palace. At the time, sources suggested the Home Office was further angered by Harry’s plan, suggesting the duke announced his itinerary in the hope of forcing the government to grant them security which was removed when the Duke and Duchess left their royal roles in 2020.
After announcing plans to all travel to London together from a family holiday in Europe, the Sussexes were forced to travel separately when they received notice that the Home Office would not facilitate round the clock security for them for the visit.
Harry did eventually manage to arrange a meeting with the King at his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire – alongside Queen Camilla – meaning Charles managed to spend precious time with his grandchildren for the first time since 2022.
Neither the palace or the Sussex’s team have revealed details of the meeting, apart from the fact it took place on Saturday, July 11, where Charles and Camilla hosted them for afternoon tea. One source described the meeting as “emotional”.
