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The Duke’s legal firm, Schillings, has alleged that the claims he lied about offering to pay for his protection and that he wanted the existence of the litigation to remain confidential are false and defamatory, the Telegraph understands.
The legal action has led royal observers to believe it is unlikely the Duke will bring his family back to the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June.
In a statement issued in January, an unnamed legal representative for the Duke said he had “inherited a security risk at birth”, pointing out that he had “served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan” and that his family has been subjected to “well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats” in recent years.
The legal representative said that the Duke had “first offered to pay personally for UK police protection for himself and his family in January of 2020 at Sandringham” when his departure for the US was being discussed, adding: “That offer was dismissed.”
The spokesman said the Duke remained willing to cover the cost of security.
His position was challenged in court last week when lawyers for the Government accused the Duke of not showing officials enough “respect”.
Robert Palmer QC said the Duke had “failed to afford the necessary measure of respect” to Priti Patel and a panel of specialists “as the expert, and the democratically accountable, decisionmaker” on security and risk assessment.
In documents handed to the High Court, Mr Palmer noted that the Duke still had a “form of exceptional status” whereby he would be given protection depending on the reason for his visit. He said if the Duke lost the case, the Government would seek the full costs, including those of the “confidentiality exercise”.
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