RICHARD EDEN: What one of Harry’s best friends told me about ‘spiteful’ move. I was astonished by his words… and I think you will be too

Boris Johnson, with his charm, oratory skills and campaigning vigor, helped persuade Britain to vote to leave the European Union with ‘Brexit’ in 2016. But four years later he could not prevent ‘Megxit’.

Boris, who became Prime Minister when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided to abandon royal duties and seek their fortune in North America, wrote in the Daily Mail on Saturday about his regret that he could not persuade Prince Harry to change his mind.

Boris told him: ‘I really think it’s a shame. I think there’s a lot of good you can do here, a lot of good causes. Why don’t you stay around?’

But as the former Prime Minister admitted, ‘It was clear I wasn’t getting anywhere.’ And now he implores the couple: ‘Come back to Britain with your heads held high.’

Harry has made clear one of the factors preventing his return to this country with Meghan and their children Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4: His family has been denied the right to police protection with automatic weapons, paid for by Britain’s hard-pressed taxpayers.

Last year, he lost a legal battle with the Ministry of Internal Affairs to reinstate this institution. He claimed it was ‘an old-fashioned Establishment stitch’.

His subsequent request to Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood for a full risk assessment was granted last December, and the committee that makes the final decision on the level of police protection was expected to meet in January to discuss reinstatement.

Last week it emerged that authorities had tried to prevent the couple from receiving taxpayer-funded security for fear of public backlash.

The Telegraph reported that civil servants from the Home Office, Cabinet Office and Foreign Office who sit on the VIP steering committee that ensures the security of the royal and senior royals are opposed to giving the Sussexes taxpayer-funded protection when they are in the UK because it carries too much political risk.

Civil servants receive a lot of criticism and are often condemned as pen pushers who obstruct politicians from making decisions. In this case I say: ‘Three cheers to the tangerines!’

There is a deepening ‘Establishment plan’ to bring Harry and Meghan back, known as the Unraveling Project, involving senior politicians and some key figures at Buckingham Palace. And I, firstly, am grateful to the brave civil servants who are prepared to defend the silent majority of British people who do not want to pay for the return of the California-based couple.

Alex Rayner told me over the weekend: ‘Harry is a member of the royal family who has done significant service in the Armed Forces. Asking him to pay for it [security] privately it sounds a bit spiteful’

They chose to continue their explosive, deeply hurtful interview with Oprah Winfrey while Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, was seriously ill in hospital.

Harry’s frustration with Project Unraveling’s stalemate is reflected in comments made to me by one of his closest friends.

Alex Rayner, who traveled to the North Pole with Harry on a charity trip in 2011 and is in regular contact with him, told me at the weekend: ‘Harry is a royal who has done significant service in the Armed Forces. Asking him to pay for it [security] Privately it feels a bit vindictive, given that there are other members of the Royal Family who have received this award and done much less.’

I found Rayner’s comments surprising. What is spiteful is Harry and Meghan’s behavior since leaving Britain.

To give just one example, they chose to continue their explosive, deeply hurtful interview with Oprah Winfrey while Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, was seriously ill in hospital for the last time.

In another example, the former actress appeared to mock the Queen, who was in failing health, with an elaborate bow in Netflix’s vulgar, insulting series Harry & Meghan.

There is nothing vindictive about refusing to give the Sussexes automatic armed police protection paid for by Britain’s taxpayers. They lost this right when they moved abroad, as the courts made clear last year.

If they want him back there are two things they can easily do. They can apologize privately and publicly for the hurtful, offensive things they said about members of the Royal Family, including Prince William and Catherine.

And they can abandon their money-making activities and devote themselves to public service.