Boris Johnson claims he was asked to persuade Prince Harry to stay in UK

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Louise Thomas

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Boris Johnson has claimed he was asked by Buckingham Palace to persuade Prince Harry not to quit royal life or leave the UK shortly before the Sussexes moved to North America.

In the former prime minister’s new book, Unleashed, which will be released on 10 October, Mr Johnson claimed he was asked to give the Duke of Sussex a “manly pep talk” to convince him it would be a mistake to leave Britain.

He said that officials in Downing Street and Buckingham Palace approached him in January 2020, just weeks after he entered office, believing that he might be able to dissuade Prince Harry of his decision.

Mr Johnson has previously said the memoir will be his “personal account of the huge realignment that took place in UK politics in the last 15 years”, taking in his leadership of the Brexit campaign that severed Britain’s ties with the EU, as well as his management of the Covid pandemic and the subsequent scandals that rocked his government until his downfall as PM in September 2022.

According to the Daily Mail, which is serialising the book, Mr Johnson wrote that there was “a ridiculous business ... when they made me try to persuade Harry to stay. Kind of manly pep talk. Totally hopeless.”

The meeting, which took place on the margins of a UK-Africa investment summit in London’s Docklands, came just hours after Prince Harry announced with “great sadness” that he and Meghan Markle felt they had “no other option” but to step away from royal life.

During the subsequent meeting, the two men met for 20 minutes without aides as Mr Johnson tried to persuade the prince to reconsider.

The following day, however, the duke flew to Canada to be reunited with Ms Markle and their young son, Archie.

The family later moved to Montecito, California, where they remain today, having given up their lives as working royals.

A friend said Mr Johnson “thought [Harry and Meghan] were a great asset to the UK”, adding that the former PM believed “it was a real shame they were leaving when they were doing such great work”.

Mr Johnson isn’t the only ousted premier to try to set the record straight on their tenure in No 10 recently – his successor, Liz Truss, released Ten Years to Save the West earlier this year. In it, she gave her account of her disastrous 49 days in power, blaming the fallout from her mini budget on the “deep state”.