Boris Johnson’s ‘hopeless’ bid to persuade Prince Harry to stay

Boris Johnson was part of a last-minute attempt to discourage the Duke of Sussex from leaving his royal life in the UK, according to the former prime minister’s soon-to-published memoir.

Johnson delivered what he calls a “manly pep talk” to Prince Harry on the sidelines of a UK-Africa investment summit in London in January 2020, according to Unleashed, the memoir being serialised in the Daily Mail.

It was a “totally hopeless” task, suggests Johnson, with Prince Harry already on the verge of leaving the country.

The man who was famous for Brexit could not make the young prince a remainer.

This encounter did not prove to be a meeting of minds, but Johnson’s account does now explain what at the time was reported as a 20-minute one-to-one “catch-up” without aides present, between the then-prime minister and Prince Harry.

It was at a time of huge interest in Prince Harry and his rift with the Royal Family, with the meeting with Johnson coming the day after a speech in which the prince had said he had “no other option” but to step down from his royal role.

Johnson, according to the quotes released so far, appears to have gone ahead with a doomed effort to get Prince Harry to change his mind – with the suggestion he was acting on behalf of Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street.

It was a “ridiculous business… when they made me try to persuade Harry to stay. Kind of manly pep talk. Totally hopeless”, writes Johnson, about the meeting between the pair of Old Etonians.

So far there has been no comment from Prince Harry’s representatives or Buckingham Palace.

But this meeting, between the Spare and the Hair Apparent, seems to reveal an unexpected overlap between the political and royal worlds and adds another dimension to how Prince Harry and Meghan left the UK.

It is not something that gets mentioned in their Netflix film or Harry’s own memoir.

From the details revealed so far it is also not clear whether the prime minister was giving relationship advice based on his own experiences. A month later Johnson revealed he was engaged to Carrie Symonds and they were expecting a baby.

However, nothing seemed likely to stop the departure of Prince Harry, who the night before the meeting with the PM had spoken, “not as a prince or a duke but as Harry”, of his plans to live a different life from his role as a working royal.

This family drama overlapped with the Africa investment summit – and when Prince William hosted a reception for summit guests that evening in Buckingham Palace, Prince Harry did not attend and was about to leave on a flight to Canada.

He has since moved to live with his family in California in the US – although he returns to the UK regularly and will be here next week at a charity event.

According to the Mail, Johnson, in his effort to keep the prince from departing, had hailed him as a valuable asset to “UK plc” and praised his work, such as the Invictus Games for military veterans.

The event was about UK investment in Africa and there was a common interest in improving education in Africa – with Prince Harry involved in a charity in Lesotho and both Meghan and Johnson having championed the importance of access to education for girls.

Much has changed for both Prince Harry and Johnson since that brief encounter in London’s Docklands, with both men spectacularly falling out with their respective organisations.

Prince Harry has been at a series of events in New York this week. This included serious moments, such as a speech warning about the risks of social media for young people.

But then he also appeared in a haunted maze item on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight show, where in a strange exchange he was asked if he was afraid of pandas.

Would that have happened if he had taken Boris’s advice? Although the ex-prime minister’s critics might also have talked about him in terms of eats, shoots and leaves.

Unleashed, by Boris Johnson, to be published by William Collins, 10 October