MP Tim Loughton vented on Twitter following the Duke of Sussex’s 60 Minutes interview
A Tory MP has told Prince Harry to “just shut the f*** up” in response to a trailer for the royal’s 60 Minutes television interview.
Tim Loughton, the MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, and former Children’s Minister, tweeted the words on Tuesday along with a teaser video of the Duke of Sussex’s interview with CBS’s Anderson Cooper.
He added to the Standard: “Just getting tired of his constant grandstanding now presumably to sell his miserable book and get another Netflix contract”.
Prince Harry has been interviewed by Cooper and ITV’s Tom Bradby ahead of the release of his memoir, Spare, in which he is expected to detail the feud with his brother, William, The Prince of Wales.
In the CBS teaser video, the Duke of Sussex claims he has tried to settle the disagreement with his sibling privately, but there have been “briefings and leakings of stories against me and my wife”.
“There becomes a point where silence is betrayal,” he explained.
The interview is being aired at midnight GMT on Sunday, January 8, on CBS, while ITV’s interview will be available to watch in the UK from 9pm on the same day.
It’s not the first time Mr Loughton has vented his frustration with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex since they stepped down as senior royals in 2020.
He took to Twitter to condemn Meghan and Harry’s explosive six-part Netflix docuseries released last month, which explored the couple’s move to California and eventual stepping down from royal duties.
On December 8 Mr Loughton tweeted: “As a Member of Parliament for a Sussex constituency and having been born in Sussex and lived most of my life here I am ashamed that this deeply embarrassing couple bear the title of our great county. It is time to take the title back from someone so clearly lacking any respect.”
The Duke’s CBS and ITV television interviews are expected to detail his relationship with the Royal Family and what lies ahead for him and his wife, Meghan Markle.
In a series of clips from the duke’s ITV conversation, Harry, said: “It never needed to be this way”, and refers to “the leaking and the planting” before adding: “I want a family, not an institution.”
Michael Jermey, ITV director of News and Current Affairs, said: “It is extremely rare for a member of the Royal Family to speak so openly about their experience at the heart of the institution.
“Tom Bradby’s interview with Prince Harry will be a programme that everyone with an informed opinion on the monarchy should want to watch.”
Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on both CBS and ITV trailers.
Prince Harry’s new book will be released on January 10 and is described by its publishers as being written with “raw, unflinching honesty” and “a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination”.
But some who have already read the book say the Duke’s account is likely to exacerbate relations with his brother.
It comes just a few weeks after the Netflix documentary, in which the Duke claimed that his brother “screamed and shouted” at him in January 2020 during crisis talks about the Sussexes leaving the UK.
Buckingham Palace did not respond to allegations made in the Netflix series titled Meghan & Harry.