The inside story of how Harry spun himself right into a combat with the MoS

In the tip, Prince Harry’s embarrassing defeat in his libel motion in opposition to The Mail on Sunday was confirmed final Friday by a solemn authorized discover bearing a nine-word assertion. ‘The Duke of Sussex discontinues all of this claim.’ 

And so ended case quantity QB-2022-000595 within the High Court of Justice King’s Bench Division.

It got here all of the sudden – and tellingly – simply hours earlier than a deadline for Harry’s legal professionals to reveal a listing of paperwork.

These may need included emails or different messages and will ultimately have been aired in a libel trial centring on claims that he was liable for a ‘masterclass in the art of spinning’ designed to mislead the general public. 

What the paperwork reveal we’ll now in all probability by no means know.

So when and the way did this at instances puzzling dispute that dragged on needlessly then foundered so abruptly, leaving Harry dealing with a £750,000 authorized invoice, truly take root? 

The flower-scented Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace on July 2, 2021, is pretty much as good a spot as any to start out.

As Harry and William ambled across the gardens that day it was nearly doable to think about that every one was proper of their world.

The solar was shining. The roses, tulips, lavender and dahlias had been in bloom. And to gladden hearts, the brothers had been chatting amiably, often even laughing.

Whispers of a rapprochement, although, had been off-target. 

This was the 2 princes placing on a unified present as they unveiled a statue of their mom, Diana, at her former residence on what would have been her sixtieth birthday.

Harry’s geniality within the backyard masked rising anger. And that day he had cause to be extra het up than ordinary. 

On his final go to residence, for Prince Philip’s funeral, he was met on the Heathrow tarmac by Scotland Yard safety officers. This time there have been none.

The day earlier than the statue unveiling he attended a charity occasion and afterwards was chased by paparazzi – or as his legal professionals put it, ‘his security was compromised due to the absence of police protection’.

It was with this in thoughts that, two months later, the Duke threatened the Government with authorized motion over its choice to withdraw his taxpayer-funded safety, one thing The Mail on Sunday later found from a well-informed supply and revealed in a world unique story.

Worth noting at this level is the existence of a February 2020 letter to the Duke informing him that as he was not a working Royal he wouldn’t obtain publicly funded police safety. 

Instead it might be offered on a case-by-case foundation relying on the circumstances. 

So the absence of police bodyguards when he flew in for the statue unveiling ought to actually not have shocked him.

The significance of Harry’s drastic authorized motion couldn’t be overstated. Never earlier than had a member of the Royal Family introduced a case in opposition to the Government.

Before publication of our story, the paper’s assistant editor Kate Mansey had emailed Harry’s legal professionals, Schillings, looking for remark.

One may need anticipated Schillings to grab the prospect to place its case. 

After all, the agency states on its web site that it really works intently with purchasers to assist them set up their ‘true narrative’ – a phrase that may probably resonate with the California-based Sussexes.

Neither Schillings nor Harry and Meghan’s Archewell organisation bothered to answer. Not that both had been idle.

Our presses started rolling on Saturday January 15 2022, and the story first appeared on MailOnline at 10.12pm that night time.

Six minutes later, the Press Association information company, having been briefed prematurely by Harry’s camp, reported that the Duke had provided ‘to pay personally for UK police protection’ and quoted his lawyer saying: ‘He remains willing to cover the cost of security.’

For a number of causes, this brought about bemusement within the Mail’s Kensington HQ. 

For one factor it was odd that Harry’s camp was withholding data from this newspaper that it was sharing with others.

Stranger nonetheless was Harry’s perception that he might purchase the companies of the police. 

Never within the latest historical past of this nation, which follows the rule of regulation, had a person ever completed so. 

As a former Minister would later observe, ‘The police are not a commodity to buy like a packet of biscuits’.

The Press Association report went additional. It stated that the Duke of Sussex had filed a declare for a judicial evaluation in opposition to a Home Office choice to not permit him to personally pay for police safety for himself and his household.

At a Sandringham summit held in January 2020 to thrash out Harry and Meghan’s exit from the UK, the Duke says he made a suggestion to pay for his personal safety. 

It was ignored. Present on the assembly had been the late Queen, Charles, William and officers of the Royal Household.

However, no such provide to pay was made to Ravec, the Home Office committee that evaluations Royal safety. 

Nor was it talked about within the letters that Harry’s legal professionals despatched to the Home Office earlier than launching his authorized motion in September 2021.

In truth, court docket papers state that in April 2020, in an electronic mail to the Queen’s Private Secretary Sir Edward Young, Harry ‘made clear at the [Sandringham] meeting that he and his wife were not in a position to privately fund security arrangements until they were independently earning’.

In the times after our story broke, the MoS’s political editor Glen Owen met with senior Home Office sources, who expressed anger and shock offended at Harry’s actions. 

‘Like other members of the public, he and his wife are not able to hire armed cops at will – no how much they offer to pay,’ one supply informed him. 

‘We don’t permit folks to wander the streets with weapons right here.’

In a briefing doc despatched to journalists – however withheld from The Mail on Sunday – an unnamed spokesman for the Sussexes had written: ‘The UK Home Office ignored pleas for more help and greater flexibility.’

They went on to say that this led the Duke to use ‘for permission to bring judicial review proceedings’ in opposition to the then Home Secretary Priti Patel.

The following month the MoS revealed the story that prompted Harry to sue for libel.

In it, Kate Mansey revealed that Harry tried to maintain particulars of his authorized battle to reinstate police safety secret from the general public.

And she went on to write down that when the MoS revealed that he was suing, ‘his spin doctors swung into action, briefing journalists that Harry was being denied the right to pay for bodyguards’.

This, stated Harry, unfairly accused him of attempting to mislead the general public.

The report added that High Court paperwork confirmed no such provide to pay for defense was made within the Duke’s preliminary ‘pre-action’ letters to the Home Office, suggesting he anticipated British taxpayers to cowl it.

‘The revelations are a crushing rebuttal to Harry’s preliminary public assertion that implied he had all the time been keen to foot the invoice,’ stated the story.

This, then, was Harry looking for to confuse the mainstream media’s response to the story, which, because the MoS identified, was ironic given the Duke now has a task with a Silicon Valley agency tackling ‘misinformation’ on-line.

Nevertheless, Harry’s legal professionals had been so assured that they requested Mr Justice Nicklin to have the libel case dominated within the Duke’s favour with out even having a trial.

But final month, the choose rejected this request, ruling the newspaper had a ‘real prospect’ of demonstrating at trial that the Royal ‘was responsible for attempting to mislead and confuse the public as to the true position’.

His ruling was a blow to Harry and meant the case progressed towards a trial, that was because of be staged between May 17 and July 31 this 12 months.

This, then, was the place when shortly after 10am on Friday it emerged that Harry had determined to desert the case on the final minute, avoiding the scrutiny of a court docket testing the reality of his claims.

Meanwhile, Harry’s judicial evaluation case in opposition to the Home Office over police bodyguards continues to be rumbling on – together with instances in opposition to publishers of The Sun and Mail titles.