It turns out that Home Office can get some things right. The department’s lawyers have today triumphed in their battle to thwart Prince Harry’s legal challenge over his right to make private payments for police protection. Legal eagles for the renegade royal wanted a judicial review of the rejection of his offer to pay for protection in the UK, after his security arrangements changed when the prince stopped being a ‘working royal’ in 2020.

But this morning a High Court judge ruled that Harry could not also seek a judicial review over whether to let him pay for the specialist police officers himself. Poor lamb. The decision came after Metropolitan Police chiefs told the the court that their officers are not ‘guns for hire’ for the rich and famous. They maintained that allowing Harry to pay for the protection of officers – potentially armed ones – would set an ‘unacceptable precedent’.

‘An unacceptable precedent’? Not the first time Harry has heard those ways…