With his charm, oratorical skills and campaigning brio, Boris Johnson<\/a> helped persuade Britain to vote to leave the European Union<\/a> with \u2018Brexit<\/a>\u2019 in 2016. He was, however, unable to avert \u2018Megxit\u2019 four years later.<\/p>\n Boris, who was Prime Minister when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex<\/a> decided to quit royal duties and seek their fortune in North America, wrote in Saturday\u2019s Daily Mail of his regret that he\u2019d failed to persuade Prince Harry<\/a> to change his mind.<\/p>\n Boris had said to him: \u2018I honestly think it\u2019s a pity. I think there is so much good you can do here, so many good causes. Why not stick around?\u2019<\/p>\n Yet, as the former PM admits, \u2018It was clear I was getting nowhere.\u2019 And he now begs the couple: \u2018Come back to Britain, with your heads held high.\u2019<\/p>\n Harry has made clear one of the factors preventing his return to this country with Meghan and their children, Prince Archie<\/a>, six, and Princess Lilibet, four: His family was stripped of its automatic right to armed police protection, paid for by Britain\u2019s hard-pressed taxpayers.<\/p>\n Last year, he lost a legal battle with the Home Office<\/a> to have it reinstated. He claimed this was a \u2018good old-fashioned Establishment stitch-up\u2019.<\/p>\n Harry has made clear one of the factors preventing his return to this country with Meghan and their children: The removal of his\u00a0right to armed police protection<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His subsequent request to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood for a full risk assessment to be carried out was granted last December, and the committee making the final decision on the level of police protection was expected to meet in January to discuss the reinstatement.<\/p>\n Last week it was disclosed that officials are trying to block the couple from receiving taxpayer-funded security over fears of a public backlash.<\/p>\n Civil servants from the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign Office who sit on the royal and VIP executive committee, which authorises security for senior royals, were reported by The Telegraph to be against granting the Sussexes taxpayer-funded protection whenever they are in Britain because it carries too much political risk.<\/p>\n Civil servants receive a lot of criticism, often condemned as pen-pushers who block politicians from taking decisions. In this case I say, \u2018Three cheers for the mandarins!\u2019<\/p>\n
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