Why Prince Harry “Doesn’t Feel Safe” Bringing His Family to the U.K.

A Feb. 16 filing from the judge overseeing the case states that that the U.K. Home Office plans to oppose Harry’s challenge. It says the group maintains that the duke has “failed to afford the necessary measures of respect to the Home Office and RAVEC [Royal and VIP Executive Committee] as the expert, and democratically accountable, decision-maker on matters of protective security and associated risk assessment.”

The filing adds that the Home Office also maintains that Harry’s “offer of private funding is irrelevant,” adding that “personal protective security by the police is not available on a privately financed basis, and that he also allegedly did not offer to pay for police protection when he returned to the U.K. in June.

In a January statement, after the court challenge was made public, Harry’s legal representative said that the duke “inherited a security risk at birth, for life” and that in recent years, “his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats.” His lawyer also noted that during his most recent trip last June, Harry’s “security was compromised due to absence of police protection.”

Though Harry and Meghan personally fund a private security team in the United States, that “cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the U.K.,” his lawyer continued in the January statement, adding that “in the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home.”