List of people who have addressed both houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Palace of Westminster, meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords
President of the United States Ronald Reagan addressing Parliament, 8 June 1982

This is a list of people who have addressed both Houses of the United Kingdom Parliament at the same time. Although English and later British monarchs have jointly addressed the House of Commons and the House of Lords on several occasions since the 16th century,[1] the first foreign dignitary to do so was French President Albert Lebrun in March 1939. The list excludes the speeches given by (or on behalf of) the Sovereign at the State Opening of Parliament[2] and at the close of each parliamentary session.

Only four people besides the reigning monarch at the time have addressed both Houses together on more than one occasion. Nelson Mandela addressed Members of the Commons and the Lords in 1993 and in 1996 as President of South Africa. Mikhail Gorbachev addressed the Houses as a secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and a foreign delegate of the Soviet Union in 1984 and again, in 1993, on behalf of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Shimon Peres addressed the Houses as Prime Minister of Israel in 1986 and as President in 2008. Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Houses as President of Ukraine, the first to address in the Chamber (albeit via remote video link from Ukraine), in 2022 during the war in Ukraine.

  1. ^ "Diamond Jubilee: Queen rededicates herself to UK". BBC News. 20 March 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  2. ^ "State Opening of Parliament". www.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 4 October 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2008.

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