Matt Vickers Warns Publishing Royal Security Details Puts Harry and Meghan at Risk
Shadow Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire Matt Vickers has warned that publishing details of the security arrangements around the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could itself put them in danger, and called on the Home Office and police to take a “proportionate” approach to assessing the risks they face.
Speaking to GB News amid renewed discussion of the King’s health and reports of a thaw in relations that has allowed him to see his grandchildren, Mr Vickers said the monarchy remained “a fantastic institution” for the country. But he argued that publishing the cost and detail of royal protection arrangements created a genuine security risk, pointing to recent attacks on MPs and other public figures as a warning of what can happen when such information is made public.
“When you look at what’s happened to MPs and other public officeholders in recent times, telling the people who would look to do them harm what is being spent and how it’s being spent is quite dangerous,” he said.
“I think there is a challenge there about transparency versus safety, and I think actually it’s on the Home Office, it’s on the police to look at the risk, look at what is being threatened, what those challenges are, and make a proportionate and fair response to them.”
Mr Vickers said the priority should be protecting Harry and Meghan properly, rather than a rigid rule on disclosure.
“Nobody wants to see a situation where something was to happen to Harry and Meghan and then find out that we’d heard about all these risks and nothing had been done to protect them,” he said. “I don’t think publishing this stuff is necessarily helpful, because I think it subjects people to risk.”
He suggested authorities should also weigh up the role that private funding and private security could play, provided any protection in place genuinely reflects the level of threat.
