Prince Harry police threat level review raises eyebrows

Prince Harry is being given a new British government risk assessment in what a security expert told Newsweek could indicate a new threat to the Duke of Sussex.

Harry was stripped of his Metropolitan Police bodyguards in 2020 after quitting royal duties and has been on a quest to get them back ever since.

The prince filed two lawsuits, followed by an appeal, against the British government in an effort to overturn the decision. Central to those cases was his request for a new threat assessment, having not had one in at least five years.

The Home Office stood its ground and Harry lost his cases in May. However, a new assessment has now been ordered, and it is likely to conclude next month, according to The Sun.

Alex Bomberg, the chief executive of private security firm Intelligent Protection International, told Newsweek: “It probably is a change of circumstances. It would be a change in the risk profile, if there’s a sense of urgency to it.

“That’s what I would expect. I’m not 100 percent sure, but I can’t see anything else triggering that. It wouldn’t be the risk going down. It would only really be the risk going up.”

A British government spokesperson said in a statement to Newsweek: “The U.K. Government’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate.

“It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”

The reaction in the British media has largely been to assume that years of lobbying the government in various forms is finally paying off for Harry, with positive implications for his relationship with his father if he gets his protection team reinstated.

However, Bomberg said it was more likely that the Home Office was “reacting to something,” for example new intelligence about a threat to the prince.

Harry is sometimes offered a police protection detail on trips to the U.K., but usually only when attending royal events. He also has to inform the Metropolitan Police of his travel plans 30 days in advance.

Any return of his police team could pave the way for Harry to bring his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, to Britain to see King Charles III. Their last trip was in 2022, when the princess was 1 year old.

Bomberg told Newsweek he believed Harry should have U.K. police bodyguards even during his time in the U.S. “I think they shouldn’t have been removed from him in the first place,” he said.

“It’s very difficult, very expensive when it’s cross-border, but arrangements can be made. I just think it should have been a bit more of a sensible approach to it. By not giving it to him, it’s drawn a lot of attention to it and maybe that’s why things are changing now.”

Public figures who get police protection are supposed to have a new threat level assessment annually, but that has not traditionally included Harry since he moved to the United States.

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