Minister defends Royal Family over Harry and Meghan doc's race claims

Foreign secretary James Cleverly praises King Charles’s support for ‘multicultural Britain’ as he defends the Royal Family from allegations of racism in the wake of Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Netflix documentary

• Cleverly praised the King’s support for ‘the multicultural nature of this country’ 
• Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary unleashed series of incendiary claims 
• Labelled Britain a ‘racist’ country and linking the debate over Brexit to racism

A senior minister defended the Royal Family from charges of racism today in the wake of Harry and Meghan’s bombshell documentary.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly praised Charles III’s vocal support for ‘the wonder that is the multicultural nature of this country’ in the wake of heavy criticism from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Netflix documentary unleashed a series of incendiary claims labelling Britain a ‘racist’ country and linking the debate over Brexit to racism and ‘horrible views’.

In one segment, Harry says the Royal Family has ‘unconscious bias’, and is ‘part of the problem’ when it comes to racism in Britain.

Lengthy segments are also given to academics Afua Hirsch and David Olusoga who say British tradition is ‘filled with racist imagery’ while discussing the country’s colonial legacy – and call anti-immigration sentiment in the UK a ‘cipher for race’.

But speaking on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Mr Cleverly, whose mother is from Sierra Leone, said: ‘In all the interactions I have had with the royal family – and I do have the opportunity to do so more than most because of my role as foreign secretary – I have seen a group of people who are passionate about supporting Britain as it is. 

‘The King has spoken in the past when he was Prince of Wales about the wonder that is the multicultural nature of this country. 

Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Netflix documentary unleashed a series of incendiary claims labelling Britain a ‘racist’ country and linking the debate over Brexit to racism and ‘horrible views’. 

‘I get to travel the world and when you do you get to look back at the UK as others see us. I’m very proud of what I see.

‘I see a very well integrated multi-ethnic country that can be very proud of its diverse heritage and the Royal Family’s attitude to this country reflects the modern country that we see. 

‘That is my personal experience but i also think it is something the whole world sees when they look at us.’

In the much-criticised documentary, the Commonwealth, much-loved by the late Queen, is branded ‘Empire 2.0’ by Ms Hirsch, while author Kehinde Andrews claims ‘nothing has changed’ from the UK’s colonial past, apart from the Royal Family’s ‘better PR’.

The commentators suggest this racist legacy made it difficult for Meghan to be both assimilated into the firm and widely accepted and loved by the British public.

Even the UK’s departure from the EU is dragged into the fray, as Harry says the series is not ‘just about our story’, adding: ‘This has always been much bigger than us’, amid the back drop of a Brexit protest followed by former-PM Boris Johnson vowing to ‘take back control of this country.’

The visuals point to racism being a key factor behind the Brexit vote and suggest the wider political climate was hostile to Meghan becoming a royal.

The debate around Brexit is revisited at the end of episode two. Mr Olusoga says that the ‘fairy tale’ of Harry and Meghan was ’embedding itself in a nation that is having a pretty toxic debate about the European Union.’

He adds that ‘immigration was at the absolute centre’ of that debate, and that ‘immigration is very often in this country a cipher for race’.

A series of clips then shows British people making racist comments.

Harry then says: ‘So the EU commissioned a report in 2016, exactly the same time that our relationship became public. It warned that if the government wasn’t going to do something, or if the media aren’t going to sort themselves out, that a culture war that had already existed was going to become huge and become a real problem.’

It comes a coalition of political grandees, senior military figures and respected historians last night urged the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to stay away from next year’s Coronation following the fallout from their incendiary Netflix series.

Amid a chorus of highly regarded voices calling on Harry and Meghan to stay at home, one former Cabinet Minister said the couple ‘categorically should not be’ at Westminster Abbey when Charles is crowned on May 6.

An explosive poll has also revealed that nearly half of Britons believe that the Sussexes should have their royal titles stripped from them – and forty two per cent believe Harry should no longer be in the line of succession.

The intervention comes days after the first episodes of the series included Harry’s claims of ‘unconscious bias’ regarding race in the Royal Family; an inflammatory description of the late Queen’s beloved Commonwealth as ‘Empire 2.0’; and Meghan’s ostentatious parody of a curtsey.

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