Can Queen remove Prince Harry from line of succession? Only Parliament can do it, says anti-monarchy group
Prince Harry’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey alongside wife Meghan Markle triggered much bad press for the Palace, especially over the shocking allegations the pair made against the royal family. The Sussexes received a lot of support after the March 7 interview, but they were also slammed, specially in the UK. Many demanded that Harry and Meghan be stripped of their duke and duchess titles, with some even alleging that the pair “stabbed” the Queen’s heart.
Amid all the drama, quite a few are curious whether Queen Elizabeth II can remove the Duke of Sussex from line of succession to the British royal throne.
According to Graham Smith, the CEO of Republic, a British republican pressure group advocating the replacement of the monarchy with a republic, it's a decision that's not in the monarch's hands. He told express.co.uk, “It is not up to the Royal Family what the line of succession is, it is not their decision to make. It is Parliament's decision to make, the only person that can remove Harry from the line of succession apart from Parliament is Harry himself. Which again just highlights the stupidity of our monarchy. The royals have absolutely no power on that matter.”
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Smith continued: “I think the public and Parliament would not tolerate a move to find someone further down the line if something caused others to be removed from the line whether that is death or abdication. They may perhaps tolerate William but that is about as far as they would go. I would think if it starts going further down the line people are going to be saying we need to have a discussion about this because we did not expect it and did not want it so maybe we should start choosing who our head of state is going to be.”
Earlier, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams condemned the view of Republic. Fitzwilliams stated, “[The Royal Family] benefits Britain financially in several other ways, through tourism, the benefits from royal trips abroad to British business and the interest from the international media is simply vast, something Republic cannot ever explain. The monarchy is Britain's greatest soft power asset. They should note the Brand Finance Report of 2017 which said 'Valued at 67 billion, the Monarchy is Britain's Greatest Treasure'.”
Meanwhile, another royal commentator, Hugo Vickers, told ‘Good Morning Britain’ in February that Harry would become king if in the future some “terrible disaster” happens to the other successors to the throne. The 36-year-old is sixth in line to the royal crown after his father Prince Charles, elder brother Prince William and his three kids. When Vickers was asked, “Has any member of the Royal Family had all of their titles removed in the last 100 years?" He replied: “Well, not titles, the main example is the Duke of Windsor and when Edward VIII abdicated he was given the title of HRH the Duke of Windsor. But it was made absolutely clear that any children that were born to him would not be in the line of succession. So there was never any question of him coming back again. The problem with Prince Harry is that he number six in line to the throne. So if some terrible disaster happened to the Cambridge family, he would find himself as King. The question you then have to ask yourself is do you want someone who has voluntarily opted out of royal life suddenly being called back to take that position? I don't see how that can work.”