All of Prince Harry’s “offers to help out” with royal duties while the Firm is short-handed and “hollow”, a royal commentator has said. Richard Kay has said that the Duke of Sussex would not end his “self-imposed exile” despite the crisis. There are currently three royals senior not working – the King, Princess Kate and Prince Edward – which leaves the elder members of the family to be its public faces.

On Tuesday, the family members who attended a memorial ­service for the former King Constantine of Greece included the disgraced Prince Andrew, his former wife Fergie, the Duke of Gloucester (79), the Duke of Kent (88) and Princess Alexandra (87).

Kay noted that the elderly group are “hardly an inspiring bunch”, adding: “Here surely was the evidence that a slimmed-down monarchy – King Charles’s decades-long dream – is not truly fit for purpose. As for Harry, those claims last week that he had offered to ‘help out’ by picking up some ­royal duties while his father is being treated for cancer look increasingly hollow.

“The loss of his High Court ­challenge to the Home Secretary over his downgraded security ­status almost certainly means he will not end his self-imposed exile. His claim that he had been treated unfairly in the changes to his police protection was firmly rejected.

“Under such circumstances, courtiers do not believe his vanity would allow him to return to the royal fold. Aides insist it is not a crisis. Not quite. Or as one long-standing courtier muttered with distinct discomfort yesterday: ‘Not yet.’”

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