Prince Harry dealt major blow by UK Ministry of Defence ahead of UK visit

Prince Harry received a major blow regarding the Invictus Games on Tuesday after it was announced that the UK Ministry of Defence had decided to pull a veterans’ charity support from the Games, reported The Telegraph.

According to reporter Camilla Tominey, the MoD had made the decision to halt Help for Heroes’ relationship before last month’s Games in The Hague, however the announcement was delayed in an effort to not cast a shadow on the games.

The veterans’ charity, involved with Invictus since its inception in 2014, was an active participant in training and selection Team UK alongside the Royal British Legion.

However, the Royal British Legion will now work alone to train and develop Team UK for the next Games.

The services director for Help for Heroes, Lis Skeet commented on the announcement saying: Help for Heroes is incredibly proud to have trained, supported and delivered Team UK for the past five Invictus Games.”

She continued: “However, following extensive discussions, it has been decided by the MoD that the Royal British Legion will lead the end-to-end delivery of Team UK to the Invictus Games for the next five years and will also be the main funder of the programme.”

Skeet also clarified that the decision was not one made by the charity, and said: “The MoD considered proposals from the Invictus UK partnership and have chosen this route moving forwards.”

“Our focus now is on helping more people across the UK, within their communities, as part of keeping our promise to be here for wounded veterans for as long as they need us. Of course, we will continue to cheer Team UK on and look forward to seeing what the Invictus Games achieves in the future,” she concluded.