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InEngland, the offices ofmayor andlord mayor have long been ceremonial posts, with few or no duties attached to them. In recent years, they have doubled as more influential political roles while retaining the ceremonial functions. A mayor's term of office denotes themunicipal year.
Traditionally mayors and provosts have been elected bytown,borough andcity councils. Since 2000, several districts now havedirectly elected mayors with extensive powers. The role of the chair of a district council is exactly the same as the mayor of a borough council; they have the same status as first citizen, after the Sovereign, in their district, but they are not addressed as mayor. There are also devolved regional metro Mayors responsible for combined authorities over larger regional-based geographic areas, which are completely different and more powerful.
In England, where a borough or a city is a local governmentdistrict or acivil parish, the mayor is elected annually by the council from their number and chairs meetings with acasting vote. Where the mayoralty used to be associated with a local government district, but that district has been abolished,charter trustees can be established to provide continuity until a parish council may be set up. Where a parish council (whether the successor of a former borough or not) has resolved to style itself a town council, then its chair is entitled to the designation of town mayor, though in practice, the word "town" is often dropped.
The right to appoint alord mayor is a rare honour, even less frequently bestowed thancity status.
Currently, 23 cities in England have lord mayors:
In May 2022,Southampton was added to the list.
The Lord Mayors ofLondon andYork are styledThe Right Honourable. All other Lord Mayors, as well as the Mayors ofcities and the originalCinque Ports (Sandwich,Hythe,Dover,Romney andHastings), are styledThe Right Worshipful. (Bristol styles its lord mayor "Right Honourable" instead, but this usage is without official sanction).[1][2] All other Mayors are styledThe Worshipful, though this is in practice rarely used for a Town Mayor. These honorific styles are used only before the Mayoral title and not before the name, and are not retained after the term of office.
A mayor can also be styled Mr Mayor and usually appoints a consort, typically a spouse, other family member or fellow councillor. In England (and theCommonwealth), the designated female consort of a mayor is usually styled Mayoress or occasionally Mrs Mayor and accompanies the mayor to civic functions.[3][4] A female mayor is also called mayor, not, as sometimes erroneously called, "Lady Mayoress". A mayoress or Lady Mayoress is a female consort of a mayor or Lord Mayor; a male consort of a mayor or Lord Mayor is a Mayor's Consort or Lord Mayor's Consort.
In the opening of a speech being made you would say 'Mr Mayor'
THE first notion Janet Pisasale got that being married to a man in public life was going to be difficult was even before he was elected. ... MRS MAYOR: Janet Pisasale relaxes at home. ....