Buckingham Palace denies Prince Harry will stay at London landmark

Buckingham Palace has denied that Prince Harry will stay at the London landmark when he visits London this week, shortly after the Duke's team said he had accepted an offer to do so.

The Duke of Sussex will be in the UK for an event marking one year until the Invictus Games in Birmingham.

Earlier this morning, a representative of Harry told Sky News that he had accepted an offer to stay at the palace, but would not be joined by his family.

But Buckingham Palace then denied that he would do so, saying he had missed a deadline. Representatives for Harry say the offer to stay at the palace was withdrawn because of Tuesday's judgment in the Associated Newspapers Limited case.

They then said it was "disappointing that the offer has now been withdrawn," claiming that Buckingham Palace had been aware of the impending judgment in the case "since last Thursday".

"It is therefore unclear why, having formally accepted the accommodation offer, it has now been withdrawn at the last moment."

The prince had previously intended to travel with Meghan and their children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five. It has been four years since the children last saw their grandfather in person, during the late Queen's platinum jubilee celebrations.

The King had offered to put the family up at an unnamed royal residence, but it was reported at the end of June that the prince's request for taxpayer-funded police protection had recently been denied.

Sources have stressed the monarch is not involved in decisions on his son's security.

Last year, Harry lost a legal battle with the government over his security in the UK, after it was downgraded in 2020 when he decided to stop being a working member of the Royal Family.

The prince has been waiting for Ravec, the committee that decides on protection for royalty and public figures, to review his case after making a personal appeal in December.

A spokesman for Harry said on Monday that after the Ravec decision, "the duke spent last week making alternative security arrangements".

"Once those arrangements were in place, he was able to formally accept the offer of accommodation for himself over the weekend," they added.

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The reason for Harry not bringing his family to London is likely to be due to concerns from his security team and the lack of an up-to-date assessment by the Risk Management Board (RMB), whose work informs Ravec.

It was meant to have met in March and would have given a fuller picture of the potential threats faced by the duke and his family, but the meeting didn't go ahead.

After losing his appeal last year, Harry told the BBC that he "can't see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point".

The reports over whether the prince will stay at Buckingham Palace come little more than a week after the Royal Family released documents showing refurbishments of the palace cost £370m, and that the King would not live there.

It said the decision for the monarch to stay at Clarence House was made partly to increase the public's access to Buckingham Palace, as if the King lived there, security concerns would limit tourist numbers and the areas they would be allowed to visit.

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