Taylor Swift’s police escort was approved after pressure from government’s top lawyer

Taylor Swift was granted enhanced information extortion for her London Eras tours performances, but lone aft involution from the lawyer wide saw the Met Police backtrack connected their decision

As the satellite was gripped with Taylor Swift fever this Summer, successful a uncommon determination by the Metropolitan Police, the grant winning vocalist was granted a taxpayer-funded blue-light escort to her Wembley concerts. Yet it has since been revealed that this highly antithetic level of information was lone achieved acknowledgment to the involution of the government’s apical lawyer.

Initially, Scotland Yard had dismissed the thought of providing the vocalist with immoderate peculiar security, arsenic it would breach its long-standing protocols to connection her VVIP treatment, nevertheless aft involution by the Attorney General, Lord Hermer KC, the unit swiftly backtracked and provided Taylor with a level of information usually lone reserved for members of the royal family and elder furniture members, reports The Times.

News of the determination archetypal emerged past week, erstwhile it was revealed that Yvette Cooper, the location secretary, and Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, urged the Met to springiness Swift peculiar extortion for 2 of her Eras Tour concerts successful August, which would spot her accompanied by constabulary motorcycles portion travelling to and from the venue.

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The highly antithetic determination marked a stark alteration from existent policy, arsenic the Met’s decisions are expected to stay escaped from governmental interference arsenic it is funded by the taxpayer. In fact, the determination to connection Taylor Swift specified enhanced information is adjacent much unusual, fixed that the Met itself has continually rebuffed Prince Harry ’s ain calls for information during his visits, with each travel present assessed connected a lawsuit by lawsuit basis.

The Duke of Sussex was stripped of his broad constabulary extortion backmost successful 2020, erstwhile helium made the determination to measurement backmost from beingness arsenic a moving royal and moved to America to absorption connected his young household with woman Meghan Markle. In fact, Prince Harry is presently waging a ineligible conflict with the Home Office implicit the determination taken by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), which ruled that it was not successful the nationalist involvement for him to proceed to person the “same degree” of constabulary information helium has received arsenic a moving royal.

After his lawsuit was rejected astatine the High Court successful February, he was fixed support to entreaty against the ruling successful June.

In Taylor’s case, the SEG’s information appraisal recovered that determination was nary circumstantial menace identified against the singer, with The Sun reporting that they had been against the thought of assigning her VVIP protection. However, pursuing the weaponry scare successful Vienna which saw her Eras circuit cancelled successful Austria, Swift’s parent and manager, Andrea had threatened to cancel the planned London shows implicit information concerns.

The Sun claimed Cooper had warned immoderate cancellation would beryllium “economically damaging and embarrassing”.

Swift played 15 sets of dates passim June and August successful the UK, with the Eras circuit believed to person brought successful astir £1billion of other income owed to fans travelling from each implicit the world to attend.

When approached for remark astir the alteration successful position, the Met did not contradict that Hermer had intervened oregon that this was the crushed for the change.

A spokesperson said: “The Met is operationally independent. Our decision-making is based connected a thorough appraisal of threat, hazard and harm and the circumstances of each case. It is our long-standing presumption that we don’t remark connected the circumstantial details of protective information arrangements.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the attorney-general’s bureau said: “This was solely an operational determination for the police.”