A Tory MP is pushing for parliament to strip Harry and Meghan of their royal titles, leaving them as simply “Mr and Mrs Sussex”, as the fallout over the royal race row continues.
Bob Seely is proposing the “nuclear option” of denying the couple their standing in the Royal Family amid damaging claims made in a palace exposé, relating to the Sussexes bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021.
The Isle of Wight MP wants to adapt laws originally passed in the First World War to deny enemy German nobles their British titles.
His Bill would force MPs to consider turning Harry and Meghan into Mr and Mrs Sussex as pressure mounts on the couple over revelations in the new book Endgame, by royal author Omid Scobie.
A Dutch translation of Mr Scobie’s book identified King Charles and the Princess of Wales as the two senior royals who allegedly raised “concerns” about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son.
The apparent “translation error” meant the Dutch versions were dramatically pulled from shelves and pulped at the eleventh hour, but not before the names began circulating on social media.
Piers Morgan used his TalkTV show on Thursday night to give the names to the British audience, claiming those in the country “who actually pay for the royal family are entitled to know, too”.
And Buckingham Palace is understood to be “considering all options” including legal action but is yet to respond.
Mr Seely said attempting to smear the Royal Family using race was “poisonously insidious” and insisted he had to act.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: “Of all the damaging insults to throw, ‘racism’ is the most poisonously insidious, guaranteed to leave a whiff of stigma and impossible to prove when false. It is the catch-all slur of the modern era.
“The allegations jar with so much of what we know about the Royals and this country.
“The late Queen and King Charles have done extraordinary work over decades reaching out to everyone in the country, including ethnic minorities and those from Commonwealth nations.”
He went on to say it “is time they dropped their titles – or were made to – and lived by their own talents”.
“The sooner the Duke and Duchess become just Mr and Mrs Sussex, the better for us all,” Mr Seely said.
The senior Tory is applying for his Titles Deprivation 1917 Amendment Bill to be listed on the Commons’ Order Paper next week, The Mail on Sunday reported. It would resurrect the wartime powers by removing references to “enemies” and “present war”. He is believed to have cleared the wording with Parliament’s Table Office, which oversees draft legislation.
