Britain’s embattled air traffic control chief has been ordered to deliver a report by next Wednesday into the technical failure that led to the cancellation of around 2,000 flights, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said.

National Air Traffic Services (NATS) chief executive Martin Rolfe was called in for talks with Ms Alexander on Wednesday, amid mounting pressure for him to resign.

Mr Rolfe was given one week to explain the fault, which struck the previous day. The Transport Secretary confirmed that the findings must “be on my desk next Wednesday”.

The IT failure disrupted 2,145 flights across Tuesday and Wednesday and affected an estimated 330,000 passengers, with Mr Rolfe facing blame for the widespread travel chaos.

He has received £2.2million in bonuses and incentive payments during the past three years, despite two major air traffic control failures in 2023 and 2025.

Ms Alexander said she met Mr Rolfe “within 24 hours of the incident” to demand a report within a week. She has also asked Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chief executive Rob Bishton to complete an independent review within six months.

Speaking to Times Radio, she said: “I’m particularly interested in the cause of this incident, the way in which backup systems operated. There was an incident back in 2023 and there was a big review done subsequent to that.

“The report was published on that earlier this year. There were 34 recommendations from that review, which have all been implemented. We need to interrogate what has gone wrong here. We need to be looking at the planned IT upgrades.”

Asked whether NATS is being ‘run by the right person,’ she added: ‘I’ve asked the chief executive to produce a report that needs to be on my desk next Wednesday.

‘I will be looking very carefully at that. I’ve also asked the Civil Aviation Authority to do an independent piece of work. It wouldn’t be right for NATS to be marking their own homework. And that’s why we’ve asked the CAA to do that independent investigation.

‘I’m going to be looking very carefully at that. I’m not going to be rushing to judgments until I see the work that arrives on my desk next week, and also the slightly longer piece of work that the Civil Aviation Authority will be doing.’

Last July, a ‘radar-related issue’ caused an air traffic control failure which disrupted thousands of passengers and forced the cancellation of more than 160 flights.

In August 2023, more than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports when NATS suffered a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.

Ms Alexander told MPs on Wednesday that she did not believe the issue was ‘unavoidable’, while Downing Street said the Government still had confidence in Mr Rolfe.

But among those calling for Mr Rolfe’s resignation was Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary, who said the NATS chief’s position was ‘untenable’.

Mr O’Leary accused the Government of trying to ‘protect’ Mr Rolfe, adding that it was ‘beyond comprehension’ that he was being asked to investigate himself.

The Ryanair boss also accused Mr Rolfe of lying about the cause of the outage. He said the airline had been told by NATS that the outage was caused by a rogue flight plan, the same problem that caused a major disruption in 2023.

Mr Rolfe said he believed the latest outage had been caused by ‘something different’ from previous incidents but Mr O’Leary rejected his explanation.

‘NATS have told us it was another rogue flight plan. Now Martin Rolfe is out denying it yesterday,’ Mr O’Leary said. ‘I believe he’s telling lies to save his own skin.’

A NATS investigation into the 2023 outage found it was caused by a ‘one-in-15million’ event in which a flight plan contained two identically named but separate waypoints, forcing both the system and its back-up into a ‘fail-safe’ mode.

Ryanair is suing NATS in London’s High Court for more than £7million over the 2023 outage and has called on the operator to reinvest profits in performance improvements and staffing.

easyJet holidays chief executive Garry Wilson has called the week’s events ‘an absolute pain’ but did not back calls for Mr Rolfe to resign.

Speaking at the Travel Weekly Future of Travel Conference yesterday, he said there was a ‘much more fundamental question to answer about infrastructure investment’.

Tui UK & Ireland managing director Neil Swanson also failed to call for Mr Rolfe’s departure. But he did say of NATS: ‘They have got to do something about this. It is not about individuals; this is about proper investment. They have got to take some action.’

Sources within Whitehall yesterday questioned how long Mr Rolfe can keep his job given the ‘litany of failure’.

One told The Times: ‘The Government holds the golden share in NATS and Martin Rolfe has overseen repeated outages that seem to wash off him like water off a duck’s back. In no other role could you oversee such a litany of failure and survive.’

Transport minister Keir Mather said disruption to those travelling ‘raises really serious questions about contingency planning and resilience planning at our airports’.

NATS has apologised for disruption to passengers and airlines, for which Mr Rolfe said he took ‘full responsibility’.

NATS also said yesterday that the investigation into Tuesday’s incident was ‘already under way’ and it would report to the Transport Secretary and CAA next week.

The air traffic controller added: ‘We are very much aware of the additional pressure this has placed on colleagues across the industry, and thank them for their continued hard work.’

The CAA has said passengers are ‘unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident’, because the outage is likely to be considered the result of ‘extraordinary circumstances’.

The flight disruption has now eased as airports including London Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted confirmed their operations had returned to normal.

Data firm Cirium said 54 of 3,028 scheduled arrivals were cancelled or were not operating yesterday. Some 47 of 3,033 scheduled departures were also affected.

For Matt Campbell, the September 11 attacks were not only the terrorist atrocity that killed his brother. He believes they also involved what he describes as one of the largest cover-ups in modern history.

Campbell maintains that the true cause of the World Trade Center’s destruction in 2001 has been concealed in the 25 years since the tragedy.

Over the past two decades, the Brighton reflexologist has pursued those he believes are responsible for what he calls a far-reaching deception. His campaign, he says, is for his brother Geoff and for the almost 3,000 people killed on 9/11.

Later this week, Campbell is due to speak at ‘Turning the Tide: 9/11 25 years later’, a conference at New York’s Museo del Barrio. Around 40 speakers, including first responders who were at the scene on 9/11, will present their views and theories to attendees. Next month, he will also attend a London Supreme Court hearing concerning 9/11 justice, proceedings he fought to secure.

His central claim runs counter to the US government’s account of the attacks. Campbell believes incendiary devices, rather than hijacked planes flown by terrorists, brought down the Twin Towers and World Trade Center 7, which collapsed later that day.

While he does not say he knows who was responsible, Campbell suspects that the US government and intelligence agencies could have played a role.

Campbell rejects the suggestion that his views should be dismissed as a conspiracy theory, a phrase he says he resents. Describing the label as “lazy”, he told the Daily Mail it was “usually applied by people who haven’t looked into anything and don’t know the key bits of information out there.”

“At the end of the day,” he said, “no-one has been held accountable for the deaths in the building and towers, and that’s what we want.”

Campbell is far from the only person who believes there is something more to 9/11 than we know.

Almost as soon as the Twin Towers went down, wild speculation began about what happened and who was responsible.

The attack remains the largest single loss of civilian life in US history and was among the first to have its narrative shaped by the internet, where forums were awash with fringe ideas about who was to blame and fake stories which seemed real.

A cottage industry of books, films and documentaries sprang up rejecting the notion that Osama bin Laden and his terror group Al Qaeda was behind the attacks and claiming to reveal the ‘truth’ about who was to blame.

One prominent theory holds that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, was behind the attacks.

Some people believe that the Pentagon was struck by a missile and not by United Flight 93 as the passengers battled the terrorists on board.

But the most prevalent of them all was that the towers came down due to an explosion, not the planes.

Richard Gage is an architect and prominent voice for the unproven theory that the Twin Towers were felled by explosives.

In recent years, Gage has been interviewed and embraced by influential figures like Tucker Carlson, who once ridiculed him but recently changed his mind – a sign of how widespread alternative theories about 9/11 have become.

Gage, told the Daily Mail that 9/11 was likely an ‘inside job by professionals,’ and challenged those who wrote him off as a crank.

‘Are you willing to look at the evidence or do you want to call us names?’ he said.

‘We can’t have a conversation if you just want to call us names.

‘I’m interested in speaking to people who have the courage to look at the evidence and ask themselves: ‘What does this mean?”

That question still drives Campbell in his search for answers.

His brother Geoff who was British but living in New York, was just 31 when he was killed while attending a conference in the World Trade Center for Reuters, the news agency for which he worked.

The North Tower was struck between floors 93 and 99. Geoff’s conference was being held on the 106th floor, trapping him, along with an estimated 1355 others, above the impact zone.

Campbell, now 57, remembered his brother as ‘such a funny, nice guy.’

‘He was very intelligent, he was annoyingly good at anything he tried his hand at,’ he said.

‘He played badminton for England, he was an exceptional chess player.

‘He died too young in an appalling, horrific way.’

Campbell began to ask questions about the official version of 9/11 after reading news articles calling the war in Afghanistan a ‘farce.’

He then devoured books about the disaster – more than 160 titles – first on intelligence failures and then other subjects.

‘Like most things, the more I looked it almost seemed so far from what we were told in the first few days of 9/11,’ Campbell said.

‘As I started to look, I got frustrated that nobody was being held accountable.’

To many people, some of Campbell’s frustrations will seem well founded.

Despite 25 years passing since 9/11, the alleged mastermind of the attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has yet to go on trial at a military court in Guantanamo Bay, the US base in Cuba, where he has been held for two decades.

Last month, a judge ruled that the alleged terrorist’s confessions cannot be used in the secretive trial in a military court because they were obtained under torture.

A judge ruled last year that a long-running lawsuit by 9/11 families against the government of Saudi Arabia for allegedly helping the plane hijackers can move ahead.

But Campbell expects that case to be settled meaning there could well be no proper court hearing or trial of any kind.

He also said it was, ‘disgusting’ that the final report of the 9/11 Commission, which was set up by the US government to investigate how the attack happened, barely discussed how the Twin Towers went down.

The inquest into Geoff’s death in 2013, along with 10 other British victims, lasted just 90 minutes. Campbell is pushing to have it reopened. A hearing is scheduled for October at the UK’s Supreme Court. The Attorney General has previously blocked any such renewed inquest; October’s hearing will center on whether the office has that power without court oversight.

On other points, Campbell strays a long way from the official narrative from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an arm of the Commerce Department which was tasked with explaining what happened.

NIST’s exhaustive investigation involved more than 200 professionals and 400 emergency responders and interviews with 1,056 survivors from the World Trade Center buildings.

The conclusion was that the impact of the planes caused the Twin Towers to collapse and debris from those buildings caused fires that destroyed WTC 7.

Reached this week, the NIST declined to make anyone available for comment and directed the Daily Mail to the published reports.

‘We will let those materials speak for themselves,’ a spokesman said.

Campbell’s view is that the NIST report is deeply flawed.

He said: ‘It really was Building 7 for me, it just seemed so improbable that was how NIST described it, how it was normal office fires when the building fell at freefall acceleration for 2.5 seconds.

‘I started looking into the Towers and they all have strange anomalies.

‘There was a lot of evidence supporting in terms of eyewitnesses and expert testimony relating to the use of explosives or incendiaries, something other than jet fuel.’

Gage has a similar theory fueled by the fact that the steel columns inside the towers were melted.

‘Steel is not melted by jet fuel,’ Gage said. ‘The only thing that can do this is incendiaries.’

The NIST report said this was inaccurate.

The report said that fires caused the steel beams of WTC 7 to expand and caused a ‘key structural column to fail.’

‘The failure of this structural column then initiated a fire-induced progressive collapse of the entire building,’ the report said.

The report added that WTC 7 did not collapse in a free fall, stating: ‘NIST concluded that blast events inside the building did not occur and found no evidence supporting the existence of a blast event.’

Nor was there any evidence of incendiary devices in the Twin Towers, the report said.

So, if it wasn’t Al Qaeda, then who could have carried out the attack, and why?

‘I don’t know who,’ Campbell said.

‘But I do know the US authorities have made it extremely hard to get all the evidence regarding 9/11 released unredacted to the public.

‘That told me they’re to some extent involved in the cover up. For whom I don’t know.

‘You have to look at those doing the protecting, why are they doing it and who are they protecting.’

People deal with grief differently, and some may think that Campbell – quite understandably – has gone down the wrong path after suffering an appalling tragedy.

But he doesn’t see it that way.

‘How can it be the wrong path if it’s for truth and justice?’ said Campbell.

‘Try telling that to the Bloody Sunday families,’ referring to the infamous massacre of 25 civilians by British soldiers in 1979 in Ireland that led to a damning public inquiry.

‘I don’t subscribe to the ‘bring closure’ stuff either,’ Campbell said.

‘There is evidence which has not been put before a court regarding my brother’s death. All I ask is that it is allowed to be.’

This week, Campbell will be in New York along with his mother and other brother, Rob, for the first time since 9/11.

The visit marks an emotional milestone in Campbell’s campaign for the truth, but he will never give up looking for what he sees as the truth.

‘This (9/11) will be debated forever,’ he said. ‘But I want a trial, I want evidence to be tested, that’s what you expect after a murder – let alone a mass murder.’

Republicans packed the midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, where Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump delivered the closing message: GOP wins in November are essential.

Vance entered to loud cheers, thanking convention viewers for their patriotism and pledging that the administration would not allow the country to move “backwards.”

“Two years ago, we have to remember our nation, ladies and gentlemen, was tired. We were tired of seeing our factories close. We were tired of our neighbors dying of drug overdoses. We were tired of not being able to afford anything. We were tired of seeing the cartels and the criminals given free rein over our great country, and we were tired of being called racists for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous,” Vance said.

Vance said the country had reached a breaking point by late 2024, arguing that Washington’s “radicals” could not extinguish voters’ resolve. He credited the November 5 election with returning Trump to office as the nation’s 47th president and contrasted Democratic policies with what he said the Trump administration has since repaired.

“When we came into office, when we came into office just 18 months ago, so many of our fellow Americans sensed that they’d been robbed of their chance to build a good life,” he said. Vance pointed to falling worker wages, a 20 percent rise in prices and the entry of thousands of illegal immigrants during the Biden administration.

“The Democrat legacy of the last few years was that they bankrupted our country and left us poor. They left our country weaker, wide open, and our communities less safe. Their record, my friends, stands for itself. And rather than admit error and change course, of course, they are doubling down on the crazy,” Vance said.

The vice president also turned his attention to several Democratic candidates running in the midterms.

“In Texas, you have Democrats, grown men, who seem to be pretty obsessed with trans children,” he said, referring to James Talarico.

“[In] Denver, Colorado, you have Democrats who say that 9/11 was inevitable, who offer justifications for terrorists who murdered 3,000 of our fellow citizens,” Vance continued. He later added, “These are candidates who, when they’re not calling to repeal the Second Amendment, they will attack you as a literal white supremacist if you dare to criticize Sharia law.”

“They asked, my friends, for a one-way ticket to Washington to legislate and regulate and wield power over your lives; instead, in my opinion, they need a one-way ticket to a mental hospital,” he said, drawing applause.

President Trump took the stage to close down the show, walking out to Lee Greenwood singing, “God Bless the USA.”

“Less than two years ago, the American people gave us a mandate to save America, and in 19 months, I’ve delivered on every single promise I made, and I think I delivered on far more,” Trump told the crowd, walking through his administration’s extraordinary achievements.

“We went from the highest prescription drug prices by far anywhere in the world, to the lowest prescription drug prices anywhere in the world, and that alone should get us a big victory in our midterms that are coming up. Get out and vote, please,” Trump said. “Get out and vote. The stock market has set 80 all-time record highs. Think of it in a short period of time – 80, 80 days we set records, and more Americans are working today than ever before.”

Trump also touted terminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mandates all across the federal government, as well as banning transgender ideology and critical race theory in our schools and putting a stop to the “transgender mutilation of our beautiful children.”

“And as you know, we had big court victories on this. We will not have men playing in women’s sports,” the president said to massive applause.

However, Trump continued, if Democrats and the “communists” win the election, it will be a very different world.

“They’re promising to confiscate your wealth, tax your Social Security, abolish no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. They’re going to defund the police, giving voting rights and welfare to 25 million illegal aliens, destroy Texas oil and gas, thereby doubling and tripling your taxes,” the commander-in-chief warned. “Have men playing in women’s sports, transgender for everybody, the mutilation of your children, and set loose criminals to rob, rape, and kill like we had just two years ago. ”

Trump teased a “Trump dividend” if Republicans win, previewing “$5,000 for every adult citizen in our country.”

“And we can do that because our country has never done better. We’re taking in trillions — trillions, trillions of dollars. There’s never been any country, not even close, that’s come anywhere near,” Trump said, adding, “It’s about time we take care of our adults.”

Trump also had an invigorated and laughing crowd pledge to bring their families out to vote on November 3 to endure Republican victories across the country.

“So please go and vote,” Trump said. “We will defeat the communists. We will reject – and that’s what they are. They’re not socialists. They’re not Democrats. They’re communists. We will reject these radical left lunatics. We will demolish the extremists, fanatics, lunatics — lunatics, and criminals who want to destroy our country.”

The pair closed out the convention on its final night after historic streaming numbers the night before – over 34 million impressions on TikTok alone. Additionally, the RNC garnered tens of millions of impressions on other social media platforms, including views on X and Facebook.

“President Trump is the ultimate turnout driver for the MAGA base, and today’s historic, sold-out crowd proved it,” White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster told – News.

She added, “While Radical Left Democrats fail the American people with tax hikes, soft-on-crime policies, and defunding of federal law enforcement, hardworking Americans have a champion in President Trump and his commonsense agenda of lower taxes, safer streets, and secure borders.”

Prior to the night’s close, President Trump took to Truth Social, noting that the convention’s day-one was a “major, sold-out hit, far bigger, better, and more important than anyone thought possible,” even beating the numbers for the opening night of the NFL’s regular season.

Prince Harry has unveiled a series of high-profile appearances in the UK and the US, as he and Meghan once again pushed back at King Charles’s description of them as “private citizens” — a label their camp views as unrealistic given their global profile.

The Duke of Sussex is set to champion charitable causes on both sides of the Atlantic, with his team presenting the schedule as his “September public engagements”.

His itinerary includes a major awards ceremony in London later this month, followed by a trip to New York, where he will take part in the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting during United Nations General Assembly week. The event will also feature former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Chrissy Teigen and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

The announcement is being seen by some royal observers as a sign that Harry is seeking to raise his public profile in Britain, at a time of renewed strain between the Sussexes and the Royal Household.

Harry and Meghan are understood to remain dissatisfied with King Charles’s recent letter of “guidance”, which made clear that they would not resume duties as working royals and would not be permitted to use their HRH titles.

Sources close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have suggested the King’s assessment is unrealistic given their notoriety.

Speaking to People, the couple’s favoured US publication, an insider said: ‘Members of the public know who they are. The idea that they can live a normal, “private” life is sadly not realistic.’

The latest intervention comes amid the couple’s ongoing battle over taxpayer-funded security and claims they are concerned about the safety of Archie and Lilibet on the school run.

Meghan and Harry appear unwilling to accept the King’s position, which stated that nothing had changed since ‘Megxit’, prompting a series of briefings from sources close to the couple.

One source suggested they should be viewed as ‘public figures’ rather than private citizens.

Their spokesman said on Tuesday that the couple were ‘surprised’ by the King’s statement and claimed they were not given enough time to respond before it was circulated.

Team Sussex has suggested that, despite being given just over an hour’s notice of the impending release, Palace aides did not give Harry enough time to ‘clarify one or two points’ in the letter written by the Lord Chamberlain on the King’s instruction.

In particular, the Sussexes appear to have taken issue with the assertion that they should not be treated as royalty.

The Duke of Sussex’s first public engagements since his return to the UK have now been announced, with Harry set to lead a series of charity events later this month.

Harry will attend the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards and the launch of the Invictus education programme INSPIRE, as well as taking part in one of his favourite annual occasions, the WellChild Awards. 

He will also return to the US to support Bill and Hillary Clinton and their so-called Global Initiative on September 22 and 23.

Harry and Meghan were said to be ‘surprised’ by the formal letter sent by the Lord Chamberlain under the direction of the King to senior stakeholders in the Government and military, which classified them as ‘private citizens’.

The duke and duchess, who are waiting to hear whether they will be given taxpayer-funded security, are reported to prefer the term ‘public figures’ instead.

Full details of Harry’s appearances including the dates have yet to be published.

The events were described by his team as his ‘September public engagements’.

His appearances will include the first ever Invictus Spirit Awards which will celebrate individuals, organisations and communities who ’embody the resilience, service and unconquered spirit at the heart of the international Invictus Movement’.

At the launch of the INSPIRE programme, Harry will play pickleball with school pupils and participate in an assembly.

Designed by teachers for learners from early years through to Key Stage 5, the programme uses the Invictus Games and the stories of its competitors to create national curriculum-aligned resources in maths, English, Stem, art, performing arts, sport and PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) education.

Harry has been patron of WellChild – the national charity for seriously ill children and their families – since 2007 and regularly attends the awards ceremony.

The engagement is described as ‘continuing his long association with WellChild as the charity’s patron’, with the awards, which he has attended 15 times, being a ‘significant part of his annual programme’.

He will meet this year’s winners and their families, carers and health professionals to hear about their experiences supporting children with serious and complex health needs.

Harry and Meghan are ‘happy to be back’ in the UK, sources said last night in the first comments about the Sussexes’ return – despite a swirling row with Buckingham Palace over Uganda’s withdrawal from the Invictus Games.

Insiders close to the couple have maintained Uganda’s decision to pull out of the 2027 Games was a ‘direct result’ of a letter written by King Charles which insisted they are ‘private citizens’. 

They also added that the ‘only people suffering’ as a result of the monarch’s letter are the Ugandan competitors who were set to take part in the upcoming games. 

MORE STORY: Celeste Rivas Hernandez Family Sues D4vd for Wrongful Death

‘They made it very clear that the reason they pulled out was a direct result of perceived guidance from the Lord Chamberlain,’ they told People, which is widely considered the Sussexes’ preferred publication in the US.

‘This was an unintended or intended consequence of the letter — and that was always going to happen. Hence the wish not to rush it out.’

Yet despite the swirling row between the Sussexes and Buckingham Palace, sources say getting their children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, settled as they begin a new school year ‘has been, and remains, their focus’.

‘Everything else will fall into place when the time is right,’ the source told People. ‘There is a lot to do. They have just moved halfway across the world, and it’s been really busy getting the kids settled.

‘Their focus has been on that, and will remain on that, for the time being. They are happy to be back.’

It comes after the couple, who left the UK for America in 2020 in a move famously dubbed ‘Megxit’, are understood to have moved to a non-royal home in the UK last month while also keeping their residence in Montecito, California. 

Meanwhile, on Wednesday morning, Ugandan General Muhoozi Kainerugaba said his nation would not participate in any event without approval from Charles, adding that he felt motivated to quash ‘that Harry-Meghan nonsense’.

The move came less than 48 hours after the King outlined that the Duke and Duchess are still not working royals despite the couple relocating to the UK a fortnight ago. 

Meanwhile, PR gurus have claimed Harry and Meghan’s swipes towards the King following his letter threaten the future of the Invictus Games. 

Mark Borkowski said Uganda’s decision to pull out of Birmingham 2027 out of respect for Charles III should serve as a stark warning to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Mr Borkowski said that ‘briefing furiously’ against the King and portraying themselves as victims does not resonate with the public, yet ‘they keep making the same mistake’.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘Uganda is the warning. The Sussex soap opera is now damaging Invictus, the one unimpeachable thing Harry created. The brand is beginning to consume the cause.

‘Harry and Meghan want the freedoms of private citizens but the power of royalty, and they brief furiously whenever anyone points out the contradiction.’

Uganda’s outspoken military chief, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, announced yesterday that the country would not participate in the 2027 Invictus Games because of ‘that Harry-Meghan nonsense’, adding: ‘I support the monarch. Period.’

It came hours after the Sussexes renewed their criticism of the King’s decision to classify them as ‘private citizens’ and make clear they are no longer working royals in a letter released following their return to Britain.

Combative statements and extraordinary claims in briefings by sources close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have dominated headlines since the King released his letter on Monday.

Mr Borkowski said: ‘They drive the PR. They keep making the same mistake, with their certainty that the narrative should start to unravel. ‘Woe is us’, the poor victims of the mighty establishment machine.

‘They’ve confused briefing with strategy. They want the freedoms of private citizens with the power of royalty and brief furiously whenever anyone points out the contradiction.’ 

Just two months ago, Uganda’s defence minister Kiryowa Kiwanuka posed for photographs with a smiling Harry at an Invictus Games gathering in London. 

But General Kainerugaba, the president’s son, said in a post on X yesterday: ‘In order not to be construed as being opposed to His Majesty King Charles III of the United Kingdom, whom we deeply revere, Uganda hereby withdraws from the Invictus Games.

‘We shall not participate in anything that does not have His Majesty’s approval.’

Asked by The Times why he made the announcement, General Kainerugaba said: ‘I have factions in the Ministry of Defence that support that Harry-Meghan nonsense. I had to quash it straight away. I support the monarch. Period.’

The Sussexes then appeared to have blamed Uganda’s decision on the King’s letter.

Yesterday it was revealed that fewer than one in six Britons want Harry and Meghan to return as working members of the Royal Family now they are back in the UK.

This week King Charles made it clear the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain ‘private citizens’. And a major poll reveals a majority of the British public agree it should stay that way. 

YouGov asked 4,506 adults whether the Sussexes should become working members of the Royal Family again ‘at some point’ now they are back in Britain.

Just more than half (51 per cent) said they would rather the couple did not return to official duties.

Less than a sixth (16 per cent) said they should become working royals again, while a third (33 per cent) said they did not know.

The poll was conducted on Wednesday, a day after the Sussexes hit back at Buckingham Palace after it released a letter of ‘guidance’ confirming the couple were not returning as working royals.