United Kingdom Entitlement holding a meeting of her Privy Council. All privy counsellors are styled
Right Honourable (unless they are personally entitled to a higher style). of a baron, worn by
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. Peers of the rank of baron, viscount or earl are entitled to the style
Right Honourable. , the 675th
Lord Mayor of London, was entitled to be styled "The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London" during his year in office. According to the
British government, the following persons are entitled to be styled
Right Honourable: ; Members of the
Privy Council : The Privy Council is notionally the body of formal advisers to the sovereign. Members of the
Cabinet (including the
Prime Minister), senior politicians, and some few other officials are appointed as members for life, and are personally entitled to be styled
Right Honourable thereafter. ;
Peers below the rank of
marquess :
Earls and countesses, and the College of Arms to apply the style
Right Honourable to privy counsellors only.
Peers All holders of a substantive peerage below the rank of marquess are entitled to be styled
Right Honourable, as are their wives and widows. However, a peer's heir who uses a
courtesy title is not accorded the corresponding style. Peers above the rank of earl are entitled to different styles:
dukes and duchesses are styled
The Most Noble or
His or Her Grace, and
marquesses and marchionesses are styled as
The Most Honourable. In order to differentiate peers who are also members of the Privy Council—and therefore entitled to a style in both capacities—from peers who are not, the
post-nominal letters ''
can be used to identify the privy counsellors. This applies to peers of all rank, as a holder of a dukedom or marquessate who becomes a Privy Counsellor retains their higher style and so could not be identified without the letters. In practice, in contexts where there might be confusion, official publications use the style Right Honourable'' exclusively to identify privy counsellors. Other lord mayors may be styled
Right Worshipful, and other lord provosts do not use a style. By the 1920s, a number of city mayors, including the Lord Mayor of Leeds, were unofficially using the style
Right Honourable, and the matter was consequently raised in parliament. The Lord Mayor of Bristol at present still uses the style
Right Honourable, without official permission. In guidance issued in June 2003, the
Crown Office recommended that the lord provosts of Aberdeen and Dundee be styled
Right Honourable in the same manner as those of Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Chairman of the
Greater London Council (GLC), the body that replaced the LCC in 1965, was similarly granted the style until the GLC was abolished in 1986.
Right Honourable is also used as a style by the
Lord Lyon King of Arms in office, preceding his title rather than his personal name, as with other applications ex officio.
In the House of Commons , members use
honourable and
right honourable when referring to one another. In the chamber of the
House of Commons,
members are not permitted to address each other directly, nor to name other members, but must instead address the
speaker and refer to other members indirectly. This practice is intended to enforce a polite tone to maintain order and good honour. Only the occupant of the Chair addresses Members by name. Members generally refer to one another as "my
honourable friend" if in the same
party, and "the honourable gentleman/lady/member" otherwise. If needed, constituencies ("the honourable member for...") or ministerial offices (e.g. "my right honourable friend the Prime Minister") can be used for clarity. Referring to one another as
honourable is merely a courtesy used within the House, and is not a style used outside the chamber. However, when a member is in fact entitled to be styled
Right Honourable (in practice always through membership of the Privy Council), they are referred to as such in the chamber. Further embellishments are traditionally applied to clergy (
reverend), military officers (
gallant) and barristers (
learned), a practice recommended to be abolished following a 2010 report of the
Modernisation Committee, but in practice continued. In summary: • "Honourable" is used for members who are not privy counsellors. • "Right honourable" is used for members who are privy counsellors. • "(Right) honourable and reverend" may be used for clergy. • "(Right) honourable and gallant" may be used for military officers. • "(Right) honourable and learned" may be used for
barristers.
Collective entities Right Honourable is added as a prefix to the name of various collective entities, including: • "The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled", i.e. the
House of Lords • "The Right Honourable the Lords of the Privy Council", i.e. the
Privy Council • "The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty", i.e. the former
Board of Admiralty Canada In Canada, occupants of only the three most senior public offices are styled as
Right Honourable ( in French). Formerly, this was by virtue of their appointment to the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom. However, Canadian appointments to the British Privy Council were ended by the government of
Lester Pearson. Currently, individuals who hold, or have held, one of the following offices are awarded the style of
Right Honourable for life: •
Governor General of Canada •
Prime Minister of Canada •
Chief Justice of Canada The Right Honourable is not to be confused with
His or Her Excellency, used by governors general during their term of office, or
the Honourable, used only while in office (except in Nova Scotia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, where honorary members of the Executive Council enjoy the title permanently) by provincial
premiers and cabinet ministers, and for life by
senators and members of the
King's Privy Council for Canada (chiefly cabinet ministers, as well as other figures such as party leaders or provincial premiers who may be appointed from time to time). The title may also be granted for life by the governor general to eminent Canadians who have not held any of the offices that would otherwise entitle them to the style. This has been done on two occasions: to eight prominent political figures to mark the 125th anniversary of
Canadian Confederation in 1992, and to longtime Member of Parliament
Herb Gray upon his retirement in 2002. Over the years, a number of prominent Canadians became members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and thus were entitled to use the style
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 included all but three of Canada's early prime ministers (
Alexander Mackenzie,
John Abbott, and
Mackenzie Bowell), who governed before the title was used domestically.
New Zealand Previously in New Zealand the
prime minister and some other senior cabinet ministers were customarily appointed to the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom and thus styled
Right Honourable.
Helen Clark did not recommend the appointment of any new privy counsellors during her tenure as Prime Minister, from 1999 to 2008. In 2009 it was announced that her successor,
John Key, had decided not to make any further recommendations to
the Crown for appointments to the Privy Council. In August 2010, the
Queen of New Zealand announced that, with immediate effect, individuals who hold, and those persons who after the date of the signing of these rules are appointed to, the following offices are awarded the style
Right Honourable for life: The living New Zealanders holding the style
Right Honourable as a result of membership of the Privy Council are: •
Sir Geoffrey Winston Russell Palmer (1985) – prime minister •
Helen Elizabeth Clark (1990) – prime minister •
Sir Donald Charles McKinnon (1992) – deputy prime minister •
Sir William Francis Birch (1992) – cabinet minister •
Sir John Steele Henry (1996) – court of appeal justice •
Sir Edmund Walter Thomas (1996) – supreme court justice •
Dame Jennifer Mary Shipley (1998) – prime minister •
Winston Raymond Peters (1998) – deputy prime minister •
Sir Douglas Arthur Montrose Graham (1998) – cabinet minister •
Sir Kenneth James Keith (1998) – court of appeal justice •
Sir Peter Blanchard (1998) – supreme court justice •
Sir Andrew Patrick Charles Tipping (1998) – supreme court justice •
Wyatt Beetham Creech (1998) – deputy prime minister •
Dame Sian Seerpoohi Elias (1999) – chief justice •
Simon David Upton (1999) – cabinet minister The living New Zealanders holding the style
The Right Honourable for life as a result of the 2010 changes are:
Africa During the periods of its existence, the
Prime Minister of Kenya post was styled
Right Honourable. In post-independence Kenya two people have been styled with the "right honorable" title. The country's founding president
Jomo Kenyatta who was the first prime minister of Kenya and
Raila Amolo Odinga, who served as the country's second prime minister between 2008 and 2013.
Raila Odinga also known as Baba (Political father and Enigma) is a towering icon in Africa, well known for his
Pan-Africanism and championing for good governance. The
prime ministers of Namibia and
Uganda are both currently styled with the same honorific. The speaker and deputy speaker of the
Parliament of Uganda are also entitled to the style.
Caribbean The prime ministers of
Barbados,
Grenada,
Saint Lucia,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and
Trinidad and Tobago are styled as
Right Honourable. The
West Indies Federation prime minister was also styled as such during that office's short existence.
Malaysia In Malaysia, only the
Prime Minister, his or her
deputy,
four judges of the Federal Court and MPs who are titled
Tun are styled as
Right Honourable (Malay: Yang Amat Berhormat, Yang Amat Arif for judges) at the federal level. For the state level, all the
Menteris Besar, Chief Ministers and Premier along with their deputies are also styled
Right Honourable.
Nepal In Nepal, the
president,
vice president speaker of the House of Representatives,
prime minister and
chief justice are formally styled
Right Honourable (). Ministers, members of parliament (Lower and Upper Houses and provincial parliaments) and Chief ministers of provinces are styled "Honourable" only. It is usually joked during informal discussions about the use of the word "Honourable" to differentiate senior and less senior government dignitories. It can also be spelled in English as
The Rt. Hon’ble.
South Korea In
South Korea, the
President,
Prime Minister,
Speaker of the National Assembly and
Chief Justice can use the
Right Honourable style.
Spain In the Spanish
autonomous community of
Catalonia, the
president of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the president of the
Parliament of Catalonia are formally referred as the
Right Honourable. ==Countries with rare or historic usage==