‘BOYCOTT Netflix’ over Harry and Meghan: Minister brands royal couple ‘utterly irrelevant’ to UK and urges Britons NOT to watch their series – as Sussex MP joins calls for pair to be stripped of titles due to being an ’embarrassment’ to the county
- Employment Minister Guy Opperman said the ‘very troubled couple’ are ‘utterly irrelevant’ to the UK
- Sussex MP Tim Loughton said of Sussexes: ‘I am ashamed that this couple bear the title of our great county’
- Conservative MP Bob Seely is proposing a law to allow for Prince Harry and Meghan to lose their royal titles
- First three episodes are streaming now, with second volume of three set to be released on Netflix on Dec 15
A minister today branded Harry and Meghan ‘utterly irrelevant’ to Britain and urged the country to boycott Netflix as a Tory MP for Sussex demanded the couple finally lose their titles due to their ‘lack of respect’ for the Royal Family and the UK.
Employment Minister Guy Opperman said the ‘very troubled couple’ are a ‘sad state of affairs’ and said he will refuse to watch their docu-series, which will reputedly earn them $100million.
Appearing on BBC Question Time last night, he said: ‘They are utterly irrelevant to this country and the progress of this country and the royal family that we all, I believe, support.’
He added: ‘I don’t think it has a fundamental impact on the Royal Family. I certainly won’t be watching it. I would urge everyone to boycott Netflix and make sure that we actually focus on the things that matter.’
Member of Parliament for East Worthing and Shoreham, Tim Loughton has joined the clamour for Prince Charles to cut off the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, declaring: ‘I am ashamed that this deeply embarrassing couple bear the title of our great county’.
After the first three episodes began streaming yesterday, and three more to come next Thursday, Mr Loughton said: ‘As a Member of Parliament for a Sussex constituency and having been born in Sussex and lived most of my life here.. it is time to take the title back from someone so clearly lacking any respect’.
There are growing calls for Harry and Meghan to be stripped of their royal titles in the wake of their extraordinary Netflix drama
Tim Loughton says Prince Charles should cut off the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, declaring: ‘I am ashamed that this deeply embarrassing couple bear the title of our great county’
Meghan and Harry have been accused of trying to ‘bring down the monarchy’ with their Netflix docu-series, which attacks the Royal Family, trashes the Queen’s Commonwealth legacy and dubs the UK racist.
The former Suits star was also accused of showing disrespect to the Queen when she thought Harry was ‘joking’ when he asked her to curtsey for his grandmother before doing an exaggerated bow on screen that also left her husband looking less than impressed.
Conservative MP for Workington, Mark Jenkinson, tweeted after seeing the clip: ‘The ultimate betrayal. And he just sits and watches’.
Yesterday fellow Conservative MP Bob Seely told MailOnline he is tabling a Private Members’ Bill that would give the Privy Council power to downgrade their status by adapting the 1917 Titles Deprivation Act, which was used against war enemies in the First and Second World War.
The Isle of Wight MP said the couple were ‘monetising’ their titles with ‘aggressive’ and ‘unbelievable’ attacks on the Royal Family and Britain. Backbench Bills rarely become law, but Mr Seely said presenting the proposals to the House will be ‘a start’.
It comes as the couple’s bombshell Netflix documentary has been accused of attacking the late Queen’s legacy after branding the Commonwealth ‘Empire 2.0’.
The association of nations, much-loved by Her Majesty, is given the label by academic Afua 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.
But the comments have been described as ‘deeply offensive’ by some viewers.
They also discuss Princess Michael of Kent a Blackamoor-style brooch to a pre-Christmas event the Duchess of Sussex attended in 2017. She was forced to apologise.
Harry said: ‘In this family sometimes your part of the problem rather than part of the solution. And there is a huge level of unconscious bias. The thing with unconscious bias is actually no one’s fault.’
Meghan adds: ‘Obviously now everyone is aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I went to the UK. Before then. I wasn’t really treated like a black woman’.
MailOnline can also reveal:
- The royals fear that the next three episodes of the docu-series will be ‘poison’
- Harry claims he was ‘brought up by friends in Africa’ in fresh attack on Charles;
- Meghan and Harry shared pictures from Archie’s first birthday party;
- The couple revealed what really happened on their first date;
- The Sussexes shared unseen photos with their beloved dogs;
- Meghan lifts the lid on her ‘amazing’ first Christmas at Sandringham;
- Netflix show is branded a ‘TV bomb’ for the royal family;
Harry and Meghan kiss in the behind closed doors Netflix series that is causing waves in the UK
Harry and Meghan left royal life following family rifts, including with the King and Prince William
Harry and Meghan shared pictures of their courtship and their marriage together and with their children
A pregnant Meghan Markle with her son Archie resting on her bump in the new Netflix series released today
Meghan breaks down on her bed in Vancouver as Harry leaves the UK after Megxit
Meghan and Harry’s Netflix episodes in full
EPISODE ONE: The Duke of Sussex reveals he ‘had to quit’ royal duties to protect Meghan Markle as he compared the former Suit actress to his late mother Princess Diana in the first episode of the couple’s bombshell Netflix series.
It features Harry filming himself in the Windsor Suite at Heathrow Airport in March 2020, on the day of Megxit, when the couple decided to leave the royal family. It will inevitably raise questions about just when the couple decided to work with Netflix on their incendiary docuseries.
It also reveals:
– Harry said a friend told the couple they should document a period of their lives, which they agreed to due to the ‘misinformation’ about them.
– Harry said he first spotted Meghan on a friend’s Instagram.
– Harry and Meghan said they had their first date at 76 Dean Street – and the Duke was late.
– Meghan’s friend Silver Tree said the Duchess was ‘crazy’ about Harry after meeting him.
– Harry said there is a temptation in the royal family to marry someone who ‘fits the mould’.
– The Duke recalled his childhood was ‘filled with’ laughter, happiness, and adventure, and that he remembers his mother’s ‘cheeky laugh’.
– Harry said: ‘The majority of my memories are of being swarmed by paparazzi.’
– The Duke praised his mother, Diana, for her efforts to ‘protect’ him and his brother from the media.
– Harry said his mother was ‘compelled’ to talk about her life.
EPISODE TWO: Features Meghan’s mother, Doria, speaking on camera for the first time about her daughter’s relationship with Prince Harry.
She tells interviewers the last five years have been ‘challenging’ but is ‘ready to have my voice heard’.
It also reveals:
– The Duke said members of the royal family asked why Meghan should be ‘protected’ or given ‘special treatment’ when they questioned newspaper headlines about her.
– Harry said negative press coverage about Meghan had a ‘race element’.
– Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland told of paparazzi taking pictures of deprived neighbourhoods in Los Angeles and saying that was where she was from.
– The Duke said articles in the press had ‘racist undertones’ as well as ‘outright racism’.
– Harry went on to talk about his children, saying he is ‘really proud’ they are mixed race.
– The Duke said he and the Duchess of Sussex were keen ‘not to make the same mistakes our parents did’ while bringing up their children.
– The King’s second son said the early stages of dating were ‘car chases, anti-surveillance driving and disguises’.
– Meghan found the ‘formality’ of being in the royal family ‘surprising’, saying she realised people in the UK found hugging ‘really jarring’.
– The Duke of Sussex described how Meghan meeting the Queen for the first time was a ‘shock to the system’, saying it was ‘weird’ telling her to curtsy to his grandmother.
– Harry said his wife being an American actress ‘clouded’ his family’s view of her.
– The Duchess of Sussex said the media would find a way to ‘destroy’ her ‘no matter how good’ she was.
EPISODE THREE: Harry and Meghan call their engagement announcement in 2017 an ‘orchestrated reality show’ – and experts take aim at the ‘racist’ history of the British empire, and its Kings and Queens.
It also reveals:
– Harry believes there is a ‘huge level of unconscious bias’ in the royal family.
– Meghan claimed stories were ‘planted’ in the lead up to their wedding, with the couple ‘playing whack-a-mole’ with the press.
– Meghan described the time around their engagement as an ‘orchestrated reality show’, adding their interview after the announcement was ‘rehearsed’.
– Harry said he ‘shoulders’ the responsibility for the breakdown of Meghan’s relationship with her father.
– Harry said his time in the Army helped ‘burst’ the bubble of life in the royal family.
– Meghan claimed her elder half-sister Samantha Markle exaggerated the extent of their relationship.
– Meghan revealed her son Archie’s favourite song is Bennie And The Jets by Sir Elton John.
– Meghan discovered her father was going to attend her wedding ‘through a tabloid’.
Under the so-called ‘Megxit’ deal agreed in 2020, Harry and Meghan are still known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
They kept their ‘HRH’ prefix – His Royal Highness and Her Royal Highness – but said they would no longer ‘actively use’ the titles.
‘If this guy hates the royals so much what is he doing parading and using his titles?’ Mr Seely said.
‘If Harry and Meghan had integrity and wanted to practise what they preach – if they think the Royal Family is so awful why do they use Royal titles when it benefits them?’
Mr Seely added: ‘I do think it is the decent thing for them to do to voluntarily give up their titles. If they don’t I think there are various people trying to put down Bills helping them to do that.’
Separately, Labour’s Raechel Maskell is putting forward similar legislation targeting the Duke of York.
Mr Seely said: ‘The way that Harry and Meghan are going, the idea that you can sit there and monetise your misery, monetise your royal status by attacking the royal family – I’m sorry I think something has got to give.
‘It is just very sad for them that they are parading their deep sense of victimhood when I think actually they are remarkably, remarkably privileged people.
‘Rather than telling people how miserable they are they should be actually helping others.
‘I don’t for one second believe that the Royal family is ”racist”.
‘I think it is highly dishonest and really quite unattractive to claim that. I suspect it is to justify their Netflix deal.
‘They have not got much to say. What they have said they have said before. So they are just saying the same thing in a more aggressive and frankly unbelievable way. I don’t believe a word of it.
‘I think so many people in this country are getting fed up with them and how they use their royal status to make tens of millions of dollars.’
In one segment of the documentary, Harry says the royal family has ‘unconscious bias’, and is ‘part of the problem’ when it comes to racism in Britain.
Other parts of the show feature left-leaning academics commenting on Britain’s colonial history and calling the late Queen’s Commonwealth ‘Empire 2.0’, and it also accuses Brexit supporters of being racist and having ‘horrible views.
A senior Tory told MailOnline: ‘Meghan needs to get this massive chip off her shoulder. The world has a problem with racism.
‘Every country has a problem with racism, every single country. The UK is no exception.
‘It is a problem in the UK that is becoming increasingly less. We have Rishi Sunak as PM.
‘It seems to me that she has been walking around, and Harry too, actively looking to interpret things from a racist angle when actually they may well not have been racist.’
‘For Harry to talk about racist Britain, and a racist Royal Family… if they were racist they wouldn’t have allowed him to marry her.
‘He himself went into exile.
They have opted to bow out of royal life… but it is ironic that they are making their money by trashing the very institution they have walked away from. They should try to make their money without involving the Royal Family.
Nigel Farage also joined the criticism, branding Harry and Meghan ‘despicable’ after their bombshell Netflix documentary suggested Brexit contributed to the racism experienced by the Duchess.
The former UKIP leader, 58, took to social media to give his verdict following the release of the first three of six hour-long episodes, which were dropped by the streaming giant at 8am on Thursday.
He accused the Sussexes of labelling 52% of Brits ‘bad, racist people’, after one of the episodes said it created a ‘perfect storm for jingoism and nationalism’ and gave people with ‘really horrible views more strength and confidence’.
Downing Street also pushed back against the efforts to show’s efforts to link Brexit to racism.
Asked about Prince Harry’s comments about the EU referendum, the Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said: ‘I haven’t put those specific points to the Prime Minister but the British people made a decision, a democratic decision, which the Government has enacted based on taking control of things like our borders and our laws, which again, we have delivered.’
Tory MP Michael Fabricant also weighed in, accusing the Sussexes of recycling the ‘ignorant trope’ that all Brexiteers ‘are racists’.
Mr Farage said: ‘Well perhaps no great surprise that Harry and Meghan choose to use Brexit as one of the causes of the terrible racism that was put against them.
‘They draw on extreme left-wing historians, they draw on fake news headlines from The Guardian and elsewhere and what they’re really saying is that 52% of Prince Harry’s country of birth are bad, racist people.’
He said the series was, in the short term, all about ‘making money’, ‘dissing the Royal Family and the United Kingdom’, adding: ‘And in the long term, giving a political platform on which Meghan can launch her career in the USA.’
Ten claims made about Britain’s ‘racism problem’ and ‘painful’ colonial legacy in the Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary
- Prince Harry says the Royal Family suffers from ‘unconscious bias’ and is ‘often part of the problem’ when it comes to racism in the UK
- David Olusoga says UK had ‘pretty toxic debate about the EU’ and adds that ‘immigration was at the absolute centre’ and ‘is very often in this country a cipher for race’
- Harry referenced an EU report that warned the Brexit debate was fueling a ‘culture war…[that] was going to become huge and a real problem’
- Academic Afua Hirsch says: ‘if you go into a palace or a stately home or anywhere that represents tradition you are likely to be faced with racist imagery’
- Hirsch also calls the Commonwealth is ‘Empire 2.0’. She said its description as a ‘club of friends who share common values’ is ‘problematic’
- Ms Hirsch says Britain thinks of its ‘painful’ colonial past as ‘all history’ and that there’s ‘no point looking back’, while ‘those in Britain who extracted wealth’ from colonies ‘continue to be inter-generationally wealthy’
- Author Kehinde Andrews says ‘nothing has changed’ from the UK’s colonial past, apart from the Royal Family’s ‘better PR’
- Ex-Palace spokesman James Holt said Brexit provided the ‘perfect storm’ that ‘gave credence to jingoism and nationalism and gave people with really horrible views of the world a little bit more strength and confidence’
- Meghan said people made ‘such an issue’ of her race when she moved to the UK, adding: ‘Before that, most people didn’t treat me like a ”black woman.”’
- Mr Olusoga said the fact that slave owners were compensated ‘for their human property’ is often ‘left out’ of history lessons, which he said is ‘just another way in which our memory of British slavery has been airbrushed out’
- Mr Holt says he was ‘oblivious’ to the legacy of the slave trade, claiming his teachers neglected to tell the full story and focused on the UK’s colonial power and ‘just how important the country used to be globally’
He said the couple are ‘nothing short of despicable’ over their ‘behaviour’ towards the Royal Family.
Tory MP Michael Fabricant told MailOnline: ‘It is a common and ignorant trope that people who voted for Brexit did so out of racism.
‘Most did so because they believed in the importance of sovereignty for our 1,000-year-old nation.
‘You would have thought Prince Harry would have had some sense of history, but I guess not. Instead he chooses to make ill-informed comments based on his own prejudices rather than any basis of facts.’
It comes after the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary today unleashed a series of incendiary claims labelling Britain a ‘racist’ country.
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’.
The accusations are levelled across the first three hour-long episodes of Harry & Meghan, which dropped at 8am on Thursday.
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.’
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