Ministerial hand kissing  – UK Constitutional Law Association

“There we had been, 16 grown males,” complained the Labour minister Richard Crossman on becoming a member of the Privy Council in 1964:

For over an hour we had been taught how one can arise, how one can kneel on one knee on a cushion, how one can elevate the fitting hand with the bible in it, how one can advance three paces in direction of the Queen, how one can take the hand and kiss it, how one can transfer again 10 paces with out falling over the stools – which had been fastidiously organized so that you simply did fall over them. 

Ministerial memoirs have left us with many comparable accounts, however the reference to kissing the monarch’s hand has precipitated a level of confusion. “Is such kissing a compulsory or solely a listing requirement”, requested Geoffrey Marshall of these turning into Privy Counsellors, though the identical query could possibly be utilized to incoming Prime Ministers and senior Cupboard ministers. This publish is an try to offer some readability. 

Privy Counsellors

Upon appointment to the Privy Council, Privy Counsellors are required to swear or affirm the statutory Oath of Allegiance and the non-statutory Privy Council Oath. Each oaths are “administered” (i.e., learn to the appointee). First is the Oath of Allegiance (as offered for in part 2 of the Promissory Oaths Act 1868 and utilized to new Privy Counsellors considerably not directly through part 14), which is run whereas the brand new Counsellor kneels (on their proper knee) on a crimson footstool and holds (if swearing) a duplicate of the New Testomony (or one other spiritual textual content) of their proper hand. 

Based on the Tory diarist Alan Clark and others, these swearing or affirming then advance “about ten toes diagonally to a different stool” for the kissing of arms. Based on the Royal Encyclopaedia, the monarch then “proffers [their] proper hand, palm downwards with fingers frivolously closed”. The brand new Privy Counsellor or minister (see beneath) will then “prolong his or her proper hand, palm upwards and, taking the [King’s] hand frivolously, will kiss it with not more than a contact of the lips”. Something extra, provides one other revealed account, “can be deemed inappropriate”.

A number of witnesses have referred to this as a “brushing” of the monarch’s hand with their lips relatively than an precise kiss. “It was a small, cool hand”, recalled the Conservative MP Sir Wyn Roberts, “and I discovered the expertise very transferring.” These being launched then arise for the non-statutory Privy Council Oath to be administered. After saying “I do”, new Privy Counsellors shake arms with their monarch. 

Prime Ministers

As of late, an incoming Prime Minister will normally already be a member of the Privy Council (Sir Keir Starmer joined in 2017) so won’t have to kiss arms on this capability. However right here, appreciable confusion arises, largely on account of Sir Tony Blair (each fictional and actual). Within the 2006 film The Queen starring Helen Mirren, Blair (as performed by the actor Michael Sheen) bodily kneels to kiss the monarch’s hand on turning into Prime Minister following the 1997 common election. 

In his autobiography, in the meantime, Blair recollects being confused when a courtier advised him:

‘you don’t truly kiss the Queen’s arms within the ceremony of kissing arms. You sweep them gently together with your lips.’ I confess that floored me. What on earth did he imply? Brush them as in a pair of sneakers, or contact them frivolously? Whereas I used to be nonetheless briefly disconcerted, the door opened and I used to be ushered in, sadly tripping a bit of on a chunk of carpet in order that I virtually fell upon the Queen’s arms, not a lot brushing as enveloping them.

It’s an entertaining story, nevertheless it appears doubtless Sir Tony was conflating his appointment as Prime Minister, at which no arms are actually kissed, along with his subsequent swearing as First Lord of the Treasury (see beneath), at which they’re. 

Different Prime Ministerial memoirists are fairly clear that there isn’t a bodily kissing of arms upon appointment. In 1964, Harold Wilson famous his shock that “opposite to all I had understood in regards to the procedures, there was no formal kissing of arms”; Sir John Main famous that the phrase was “conventional and outdated – the Queen’s hand just isn’t kissed”; Gordon Brown that “Opposite to fable, the Queen and her prime minister don’t ‘kiss arms’: they shake arms”; and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton that “no arms are literally kissed”. This appears conclusive.  

On 5 July 2024 the Courtroom Round recorded that Sir Keir Starmer had accepted the King’s request to type a brand new administration “and kissed arms upon his appointment”. A Buckingham Palace press launch, nevertheless, clarified that “This isn’t actually the case and easily denotes the kind of Viewers.” This isn’t terribly useful, as there are some audiences which happen upon an appointment which don’t embody any reference to “kissing arms”. The Palace additionally maintains that a person is concurrently appointed Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, though within the case of Sir Keir Starmer, the obligatory Letters Patent (for the latter workplace) are dated 16 July, 11 days after he “kissed arms”.

Writing in 1997, Geoffrey Marshall tentatively instructed “that Prime Ministerial hand-kissing is withering or has withered away”. We are able to now be extra sure: it has ceased, maybe round a century in the past. In 1905 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman tried however did not kiss King Edward VII’s hand, whereas in 1908 H. H. Asquith advised his spouse he had “knelt down and kissed [the King’s] hand” upon his appointment in Biarritz, France.  

Ministers

An archived model of the Royal Household web site acknowledged that for a brand new Prime Minister “the precise kissing of arms will happen later, in Council”.

This was a reference to the requirement (once more below the Promissory Oaths Act 1868) for a brand new Prime Minister to swear or affirm a statutory Oath of Workplace as First Lord of the Treasury (relatively than as Prime Minister). The oath is in part 3 of the 1868 Act. Beneath part 5 of the 1868 Act and Article 1 of the Promissory Oaths Order 1939, all Cupboard ministers should additionally take an Oath of Workplace “within the presence of His Majesty in Council”. These are listed within the Schedule to the 1868 Act. This oath, just like the Oath of Allegiance, is taken whereas kneeling on a crimson footstool. 

Statute, nevertheless, says nothing about hand kissing (which as with Privy Counsellors seems to imply “brushing with lips”), though based on a 1987 Privy Council Workplace memorandum (reproduced by Rodney Brazier in his guide Constitutional Follow), the bodily kissing of arms is:

a courtesy which follows the oath when that’s taken earlier than The [King] in Council. It’s a apply which is invariably noticed. It isn’t, nevertheless, a formality on which the appointment in any method relies upon. 

The Courtroom Round data that at a Privy Council assembly on Saturday 6 July 2024:

The next took the Oath of Workplace or made affirmation, kissed arms upon appointment and obtained the Seals of Workplace […] After the Council the Rt. Hon. Patrick McFadden MP had an viewers of The King and took the Oath of Workplace, kissed arms on appointment and obtained the Seals of Workplace as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

However did all these involved actually kiss arms? Right here the truth stays relatively much less sure. Though Sir William Anson (writing within the Nineties) was clear that ministers “enter the service of the Crown by kissing the King’s arms”, Harold Wilson famous (once more in his memoirs) that on attending a Privy Council “to be appointed First Lord of the Treasury”, he “was not requested to kiss arms on the bottom that I had kissed arms as Prime Minister”, though in fact he “had not” on that event both.

Based on one minister contacted by the creator who was current at a second Privy Council on 10 July 2024, the monarch’s hand was solely bodily kissed on their introduction to the Privy Council however not on taking their Oath of Workplace as a minister. I perceive, nevertheless, that the norm is for all ministers (together with the First Lord of the Treasury) swearing or affirming actually to kiss arms after taking this oath. This, nevertheless, depends upon circumstances, together with the well being of the monarch and whether or not a gathering is bodily or distant. Hand kissing is clearly not attainable through Zoom. This is able to maybe account for sure inconsistencies in ministerial memoirs and from different sources.

The 2 Privy Council conferences listed above had been additionally notably busy and would have concerned plenty of hand kissing by greater than 20 ministers, a few of whom needed to take two Oaths of Workplace (for instance Jonathan Reynolds as each Secretary of State for Enterprise and Commerce, and as President of the Board of Commerce). Angela Rayner was additionally sworn twice on account of “Levelling Up” being faraway from her ministerial title. 

ConclusionWriting within the journal Public Legislation in 1997, Geoffrey Marshall concluded that “not all the pieces is but identified of this vital praeludium to the idea of senior ministerial workplace”. From the accessible proof, nevertheless, it may be stated for sure {that a} new Privy Counsellor does bodily kiss arms (if kissing is taken to imply brushing); {that a} new Prime Minister doesn’t upon appointment; and that the norm is for brand spanking new ministers (together with the First Lord of the Treasury) to take action however that this will differ relying on circumstances. Lastly, kissing arms – when it does happen – is a courtesy relatively than a authorized necessity.

Dr David Torrance, Home of Commons Library.

With due to Jason Loch for feedback on an earlier draft of this weblog and for figuring out some extra sources.

(Recommended quotation: D. Torrance, ‘Ministerial hand kissing ’, U.Okay. Const. L. Weblog (twenty fourth July 2024) (accessible at https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/))