Rishi Sunak intervenes to BLOCK move to strip Harry and Meghan of their royal titles - PM opposes landmark bill
The Bill is currently on its Second Reading in the House of Commons.
ANDREW KELLY
Rishi Sunak has revealed he is not in support of a bill that could see Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stripped of their royal titles.
The landmark legislation, put forward by Labour MP Rachael Maskell, would give Parliament the power to strip members of the Royal Family of their titles.
The Bill is currently on its Second Reading as it moves through the House of Commons.
It was proposed by the MP for York initially with the aim of stripping the Duke of York of his titles.
There has since been calls for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to be stripped of their titles after the couple’s groundbreaking Netflix docuseries, where they made a string of criticisms about royal life.
Speaking about the bill, Conservative MP Bob Seely told GB News: “If the Duke and Duchess hate this country so much, hate the institutions, hate the monarchy, they should either be giving up the titles themselves or we should be helping them to do that.”
Rishi Sunak says he will not be supporting any Bill that could result in the Sussexes losing their royal titles.
Stefan Rousseau
The plan has hit a potentially significant roadblock, after the Prime Minister’s spokesperson revealed Sunak “does not support the bill”.
Ms Maskell introduced the Removal of Titles Bill in June 2022. The York MP told the Express that it would allow the people of the city the opportunity to address their “grievance” with Prince Andrew’s links.
The MP explained: "The Bill gives powers to the monarch and to Parliament to remove a title. While having powers to hand down or hand out titles, there is an anomaly to remove such a title.
"Whether from members of the Royal Household or those that sit in the House of Lords, there may, from time to time be a need to recognise that the holding of a title is no longer appropriate.”
Harry and Meghan signed lucrative deals, thought to be worth more than £100 million, with Netflix and Spotify after quitting as senior working royals.
The rest of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Netflix docuseries will be available to stream on Thursday.
POOL
The first three episodes of a six-part Netflix series are available to stream, with the rest coming on Thursday.
So far, Harry has accused the royals of having a “huge level of unconscious bias” and Meghan alleged that the media wanted to “destroy” her.
The third episode of the documentary referred to an event in 2017 when Princess Michael of Kent wore a blackamoor-style brooch that is deemed to be racist.
Harry said: “In this family, sometimes you are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. There is a huge level of unconscious bias.”
After the documentary aired, a row broke out over whether the royal family and the palaces were given the right to reply to the couple’s controversial show.
A senior palace source said Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and members of the family were not approached for comment on content in the series.
However, a Netflix source said the communications offices for the King and the Prince of Wales were contacted in advance and given the chance to react to Harry and Meghan’s claims.