Rishi Sunak speaks out on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘near catastrophic’ car chase in New York

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex claim they were involved in a two hour car chase with paparazzi after attending an award ceremony in New York this week. The incident, which also involved Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, was described as “near catastrophic” and a “relentless pursuit” by a spokesperson for Prince Harry.

Prime MinisterRishi Sunak has now commented on the incident while at the G7 summit in Japan. When asked to comment on the alleged car chase, the PM said: “Not aware of a particular incident in question.”

When the PM was asked if he has sympathy with a possible invasion of privacy or safety, Mr Sunak said: “I think just as all of us do, we want to make sure that we go about our day-to-day lives in safety and security. My job as Prime Minister is to ensure everyone feels safe in our country. That’s why we put 20,000 more police officers on the street. It’s why we’re giving them the powers to tackle things like knife crime.”

When told the incident happened in the US, Mr Sunak said: “Cars in New York are not really my priority or my responsibility. What is my priority and responsibility is people’s safety at home.”

In a statement on Wednesday, the spokesperson for Prince Harry said: “This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.

“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety. Dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all involved.”