You might be wondering what Taylor Swift has to do with Prince Harry's ongoing security battle in the U.K., but the "Cruel Summer" singer has inadvertently caused an uproar in British politics for her police escort during the Eras Tour—a benefit the Duke of Sussex has been denied.
Prince Harry—whose security was dropped in 2020 after he stopped down as a senior member of the Royal Family—has been fighting to get police protection reinstated while he's visiting home due to the risk of attacks against himself and his family. But when Taylor Swift visited London this summer, she received a police escort following the terror threats that forced the star to cancel her Vienna shows.
The Sun claimed that London's mayor and Britain's home secretary (along with Taylor's mom, Andrea Swift) "pressured" the Metropolitan Police to arrange a taxpayer-funded escort for the pop star from her hotel to Wembley Stadium. These allegations were denied in a Sky News interview by Lisa Nandy, who serves as the U.K.'s secretary of state for culture, media and sport.
Nandy noted that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was unable to insist on police protection for a VIP as it was an "operational matter for the police, not the government." However, The Sun reported that Andrea Swift "is said to have threatened to axe the August shows unless a police convoy was provided."
"I'd say there's a double standard," royal and political commentator Shola Mos-Shogbamimu told Newsweek of the matter. "Why would you let her go up and down without police protection, knowing fully well that there were the terror alerts? And the same can be said for Prince Harry."
The author said she didn't "have a problem with Taylor Swift having that police protection," adding it was "appropriate" due to the foiled attack in Vienna. However, Mos-Shogbamimu pointed out that "the same should be afforded to Prince Harry, who faces the same if not more" in terms of threats from the public.
"The threats, the death threats—and I would call it domestic terrorism that he and his family face—is real, so it does make sense that he gets police protection," she continued.
Prince Harry has recently spoken about why he doesn't feel safe bringing wife Meghan Markle and kids Princess Lilibet, 3, and Prince Archie, 5 back to the U.K.
In the ITV documentary Tabloids on Trial, the duke said, "It's still dangerous, and all it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff to act on what they have read. And whether it's a knife or acid, whatever it is, and these are things that are of genuine concern for me."
The prince noted that his lack of security was "one of the reasons why I won't bring my wife back to this country."
