ABSTRACT
The British monarchy has an official website which features ‘40 facts about Buckingham Palace’. One of these facts concerns the dress codes when visiting the monarch. When the prime minister goes to the Palace after an election supposedly to kiss hands with the head of state, the requirement after every election until the Second World War was to wear formal
court evening dress. Except once: after the election of a Labour government in 1924. Then James Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) became prime minister of a minority administra tion. A photograph shows Labour’s first prime minister leaving the Palace in a suit with a top hat that was almost certainly borrowed.
