Prince Harry set for High Court showdown as royals hold ‘race row’ talks

The Duke of Sussex is set for a court showdown in London this week as aides to King Charles III and Prince William prepare for discussions on how to deal with the continuing fall-out from the royal “race row”.

Lawyers for Prince Harry are due to spend three days before the High Court from Tuesday in a bid to overturn a ruling that their client cannot pay for specialist armed police protection while in the UK.

Representatives of the duke did not immediately respond to requests to clarify whether he is likely to travel from his California home to attend the hearings. But any visit to London would bring with it calls for Prince Harry to hold a clear-the-air meeting with King Charles, who was last week named as one of two senior royals alleged to have raised “concerns” about the skin colour of the Sussexes’ son, Prince Archie.

The naming of the monarch and Catherine, Princess of Wales, in the since-withdrawn Dutch translation of a book by royal author Omid Scobie has resurrected the most divisive point of contention between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the rest of Windsors after Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, first revealed an unidentified royal made the comment in the couple’s 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview.

Sources close to both the Sussexes and Buckingham Palace have briefed media outlets that no one within their teams could be responsible for the leaking of the names, said to have been contained in an exchange of letters between the Duchess and the King.

But with the episode continuing to feature on front pages, there have been calls for action to resolve or curtail the controversy. The Palace has said it is keeping “all options open”, including possible legal action, amid expectations that aides to the King and the Prince of Wales will hold discussions this week to plot a way forward.

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Royal sources told the Sunday Telegraph there were no “crisis talks” over the issue but that discussions would continue this week within the Palace and between the households “with care and time and professionalism”. In the meantime, it is expected that senior royals will present a “business as usual” united front, attending engagements following the return of the King from his high-profile visit to Dubai last week to attend the COP28 climate summit.

Prince Harry’s legal challenge over his security arrangements will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London after he was given permission to bring a second case against the decision in February 2020 by a little-known Home Office body – the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (known as Ravec) – to bar him from paying for a police security detail while in Britain.

Home Office lawyers have argued that it should not be open for “wealthy” individuals to effectively buy frontline police services. But those representing Prince Harry point out that Parliament has legislated to allow precisely such a scenario and argue there is an “important issue of principle” at stake in the proceedings.

The duke, who currently has five ongoing civil cases before the English courts, has previously shown himself willing to attend court hearings. This summer he testified over two days during a phone hacking case he is bringing against the publisher of the Daily Mirror as to what he said was the damage inflicted on his life by tabloid newspapers.

But it was unclear whether the duke is likely to attend the more technical Ravec case. Representatives of the Sussexes did not immediately respond to questions as to whether the duke is expecting to travel to London this week.

In the meantime, a Conservative MP revealed on Sunday that he is proposing to resurrect legislation drawn up during the First World War to strip pro-German aristocrats of their titles to act as a vehicle remove the titles of modern royals.

Bob Seely, the Tory MP for the Isle of Wight, outlined his plans to present his Titles Deprivation 1917 Act Amendment Bill, which would give Parliament the “nuclear option” of depriving the Sussexes of their royal titles.

The bill, which has little chance of becoming law unless the Government grants it space on the legislative timetable, would empower the Privy Council to set up a committee to consider the status of dissenting royals. Parliament would then debate as to whether it should accept any recommendation that individuals lose their titles.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Seely said: “I’m not a republican and support the monarchy, but after the latest instalment of the couple’s feud with the rest of the royal family, I believe that Parliament and the Privy Council should consider a nuclear option.”