Prince Harry could use the “troubling” decision to allow Taylor Swift a police escort to bolster his own security case against the Government, The Telegraph understands.
The Duke of Sussex believes that Scotland Yard’s decision to provide the singer with a taxpayer-funded escort following political intervention highlights inconsistencies in approach.
Swift was granted a blue-light police escort to her Wembley Stadium shows in August after terror threats forced the cancellation of her Vienna shows earlier that month.
Andrea Swift, the star’s mother and manager, was said to have threatened to cancel the gigs before she was granted additional security, but the escort caused anger because senior Government figures had reportedly pressured the Metropolitan Police to acquiesce.
The Duke has been embroiled in a row over his right to automatic police protection after stepping back from public duties.
He lost a legal battle with the Home Office earlier this year but is due to challenge the ruling in the Court of Appeal in April.
The Duke’s spokesman declined to comment on the case but a source close to the situation said the Swift episode showed that exemptions to security policy could be made.
The source added the justification of terrorism threats, which were not directed at Swift herself, felt “particularly hollow” given that similar and consistent threats were made against the Duke.
Neil Basu, a former assistant commissioner of the Met police, told The Telegraph he believed the force had rightly agreed to protect Swift in order to mitigate risk and to manage “the political and possible economic impact of getting it wrong or cancelling the show”.
He said: “I would have made the same decision. But the same logic applies surely to the youngest son and family of our King?”
Mr Basu, who was also the Met’s counter terror chief, said that during his tenure from 2018 until 2021, there was a “very real” and “disgusting” threat against the Sussexes that was unlikely to have lessened with the passage of time, not least owing to the couple’s divisive departure from the UK and the continued rise of the far-Right.