The Right Honourable (abbreviated as The Rt Hon.,
The Rt Hon or The Rt. Hon.) is an
honorific prefix that is traditionally applied to certain people in
the
United Kingdom,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand, the
Anglophone Caribbean and other
Commonwealth Realms, and occasionally elsewhere. Examples of this
are 'The Right Honourable
David Cameron
MP' (Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom), 'The Right Honourable
Stephen Harper
PC
MP' (Prime
Minister of Canada) and 'The Right Honourable
John
Key
MP' (Prime
Minister of New Zealand).
Entitlement
The following persons are entitled to the prefix in a personal
capacity:
- Members of the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the
Privy Council of Northern Ireland.
- Privy Counsellors are appointed for life by the Monarch, on
the advice of the Prime Minister. Conventionally, all members of
the Cabinet (which is technically a committee of the Privy
Council) are appointed, as well as some other senior ministers
in the government and opposition leaders. The Privy Council of
the day will thus include all current and former members of the
Cabinet of the United Kingdom, with the exception of those
who have resigned from the Privy Council. The First Ministers of
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also entitled.
- In order to differentiate
peers who are Privy Counsellors from those who are not,
sometimes the
suffix PC is added to the title.
-
Barons (including
life peers),
viscounts and
earls,
and their wives.
In addition, some people are entitled to the prefix in an official
capacity, i.e. the prefix is added to the name of the office, not the
name of the person:
- The
Lords Mayor of
London,
Cardiff,
Belfast and
York;
and of
Melbourne,
Sydney,
Perth,
Adelaide,
Brisbane and
Hobart;
and
- The Lord Mayor of Bristol uses the prefix without official
sanction.[1][2]
- The
Lords Provost of
Edinburgh and
Glasgow.
- The holders of certain offices in
Canada—including
the
Governor General,
Prime Minister and
Chief Justice—and in
New Zealand—including the
Governor General,
Prime Minister and
Speaker of the House.
- The
Chairman of the London County Council (LCC) was granted the
style in 1935 as part of the celebrations of the
silver jubilee of
George V.[3]
The Chairman of the
Greater London Council, the body that replaced the LCC in 1965,
was similarly granted the prefix.[4]
The office was abolished in 1986.
Collective
entities
"The Right Honourable" is also added as a prefix to the name of
various collective entities such as the following:
- The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal (of the
United Kingdom, etc.) in Parliament Assembled (the
House of Lords);
- The Right Honourable the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses (of the
House of Commons/Commons House) in Parliament Assembled[5]
(the
House of Commons) (archaic, now simply The Honourable the
Commons of the United Kingdom, etc.;[6]
and
- The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty
(the former
Board of Admiralty)
- The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of the Privy
Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to
Trade and Foreign Plantations (the
Board of Trade)
See also the collective use of "Most Honourable", as in "The Lords of
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council" (the
Privy Council).
Use of the
honorific
The honorific is normally used only on the front of envelopes and
other written documents: for example, The Rt. Hon.
Ann Widdecombe was otherwise referred to simply as "Miss Widdecombe"
before she left parliament at the 2010 election.
In the
House of Commons, Members of Parliament refer to each other as "the
honourable member for ... (then constituency)..." or "the right
honourable member for ..." depending on whether or not they are Privy
Councillors. Members usually refer to those in their own party as, "My
(right) honourable friend", and to those in opposition parties as "the
(right) honourable lady / gentleman".
Outside
the United Kingdom
Generally within the Commonwealth, ministers and judges are
The Honourable unless they are appointed to the Privy Council of
the United Kingdom, in which case they are The Right Honourable.
Such persons generally include Prime Ministers and judges of the Court
of Appeal of
New Zealand, and several other Commonwealth prime ministers.
Australia
In
Australia some Premiers of the Australian colonies in the 19th
century were appointed members of the UK Privy Council and were thus
entitled to be called The Right Honourable. After Federation in
1901, the
Governor-General, the Chief Justice of the
High Court of Australia, the
Prime Minister and some other senior ministers held the title. There
has never been an Australian Privy Council.
In 1972
Labor Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam declined appointment to the Privy Council. The
practice was resumed by
Malcolm Fraser in 1975, but
Bob
Hawke declined the appointment in 1983. The last Governor General to
be entitled to the style was
Sir Ninian Stephen. The last politician to be entitled to the style
was
Ian Sinclair, who retired in 1998.
The only living Australians holding the title The Right Honourable
for life are:
The Lord Mayors of
Sydney,
Melbourne,
Brisbane,
Perth,
Adelaide and
Hobart are styled The Right Honourable, but the style (which
has no connection with the Privy Council) attaches to the title of Lord
Mayor, not to their names and is relinquished upon leaving office.
Reginald Withers holds the title Right Honourable for life by virtue of
being a member of the Privy Council, not by virtue of being former Lord
Mayor of Perth.
Canada
In Canada, members of the
Queen's Privy Council for Canada and of the
Senate of Canada receive the honorific The Honourable. Only
occupants of the most senior public offices being made The Right
Honourable, as they used to be appointed to the UK Privy Council.
L'Honorable and le Très Honorable are used in
French by the federal government. "Right Honourable" does not apply
to any official at the provincial level.
Individuals who hold, or have held, the following offices are awarded
the style The Right Honourable for life:
(Governors General also use the style His/Her
Excellency during their term of office.)
Before the style Right Honourable came into use for all prime
ministers, three prime ministers did not have the style as they were not
UK Privy Councillors. These were the Hon.
Alexander Mackenzie, the Hon. Sir
John Abbott and the Hon. Sir
Mackenzie Bowell.
Several prominent Canadians (mostly politicians) have become members
of the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom and have thus been entitled to
use the title Right Honourable, either because of their services in
Britain (e.g. serving as envoys to London) or as members of the
Imperial War Cabinet or due to their prominence in the
Canadian Cabinet. These include:
1 As Prime Minister.
2 Tupper was appointed when he was no longer Prime
Minister and St. Laurent was appointed when he was a cabinet minister
under Mackenzie King.
3 Massey became Governor General over a decade later. He
was made "Right Honourable" while serving as Canada's
High Commissioner to London.
4 As
Chief Justice of Canada
5 As
Governor General of Canada
6 Duff did not become Chief Justice until 1933
Canadian appointments to the British Privy Council were ended by the
government of
Lester Pearson. Since then, the style may be granted for life only
by the Governor General to eminent Canadians who have not held any of
the offices that would otherwise entitle them to the style. It has been
granted to the following individuals:
Hong Kong
The
Chief Executive of Hong Kong is entitled to the
ex officio title "The Right Honourable". The conferment of the title
has, however, nothing to do with Privy Council appointment.
Ireland
Members of the
Privy Council of Ireland were entitled to be addressed as The
Right Honourable until the Privy Council was abolished with the
creation of the
Irish Free State in 1922. Nevertheless, the
Lord Mayor of Dublin, like his counterparts in the United Kingdom,
retained the usage of the honorific after this time as a result of a
separate conferring of the title by law; in 2001 the honorific was
removed as a consequence of
local government law reform.
New Zealand
In
New Zealand, the
Prime Minister and some other senior cabinet ministers have
customarily been appointed to the UK Privy Council and styled The
Right Honourable.[7]
Senior Judges are also often appointed as Privy Councillors.
Former Prime Minister
Helen Clark did not recommend any new Privy Councillors. At present,
Winston Peters is the sole Privy Councillor in the New Zealand
Parliament. Privy Councillors recently retired include Clark, former
Speaker of the House
Jonathan Hunt and former Prime Minister
Jenny Shipley.[8]
In 2009 it was announced that Prime Minister
John
Key had decided not to make any further recommendations to the
British Prime Minister for appointments to the Privy Council.[9]
However, in August 2010, the
Queen of New Zealand announced that, effective immediately, all
Governors-General,
Prime Ministers,
Speakers of the House, and
Chief Justices will be granted the title "The Right Honourable" for
life. This change was made because the practice of appointing New
Zealanders to the Privy Council had ceased. However, this change was not
retrospective as all but two of the living remaining holders of the
offices granted the honorific had already been appointed to the Privy
Council.[10]
The living New Zealanders holding the title The Right Honourable for
life as a result of membership of the Privy Council are:
The living New Zealanders holding the title The Right Honourable for
life as a result of the 2010 changes:
Etymology
"Right" in this context is an adjective meaning "To a great extent or
degree".
[11]
See also