Next year the Invictus Games, the sporting competition for wounded veterans that Prince Harry launched more than a decade ago, is to be staged in Birmingham. And he is planning to fly in from California to be there. It’s reported that he is also coming here next month for a series of promotional events. All with the support of King Charles, who hopes the Games will be a great success. Jolly good. Harry wants to bring Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet with him. There’s always been a sticking point though, something he made clear in an interview last year when he said: ‘I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point.’ That sticking point is security for him and his family – and he made the comments after losing a legal battle to ensure he would be given it whenever he visited this country, courtesy of the taxpayer. Yet this week my colleague and royal expert Richard Eden revealed that Harry would be offered police protection on his visits where Invictus-related events are concerned. Which could mean he’ll bring his family with him next year.

The Games are a deserving cause and by far the most respectable of the charities he has left. But why on Earth should any of us pay a penny so that he can swan about with security at taxpayers’ expense? It is true that many members of the Royal Family get protection paid for by the state but only if they are working royals carrying out public duties. But Harry is no longer a working royal; he’s given up his royal privileges so that he and his self-aggrandising wife can monetise their connections with the monarchy by launching spiteful and vicious attacks on the institution and his own family. It is beyond outrageous for him to expect us to stump up for him.

What is more, it will only damage the monarchy if we do. The Royals are in a highly precarious position. The recent report by the National Audit Office into their privileged living arrangements, showing they pay peppercorn rents to live in palaces – if they pay anything at all – will have infuriated countless millions struggling with high rents and increasing mortgages. The idea that we should be asked to pay for the errant Harry to return alongside his selfish wife Meghan will only fuel their anger as well as the republican cause. King Charles is a kind man. He must be heartbroken by Harry’s self-imposed exile and the fact he has never seen his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet. Little wonder he’s so ready to express his support.

But that support must not mean taxpayers funding Harry’s protection. And I believe the King should expressly say so. Otherwise the Royals risk coming across as tone deaf, basking in their privilege at a time when Britons are struggling in a cost-of-living crisis. The Government has already committed as much as £26million in public funds to support the Invictus Games, via the Office for Veterans’ Affairs. And we should not begrudge them that sum. But it is all the more reason for us not to fork out any more for the privilege of having Prince Harry, his wife Meghan, and their children on British soil. If they want to come here, they should pay their own way out of their diminishing Netflix millions.

Or else just stay away. Although a visit by them might allow us a precious glimpse of Archie and Lilibet’s faces, which have been absurdly kept out of public view. Could that be the real purpose of Harry’s visit, another Netflix documentary this time revealing the faces of their children? As their reputation palls in America, I wouldn’t put it past them. Perhaps it’s the only ace left up their sleeve. I am a staunch monarchist – but my loyalty has been sorely tested in recent times. For me, a security detail funded by the taxpayers could be the last straw.