By Lyn Funnell

Keith Mates
has been nominated by Maria Caulfield MP
to be invited to a Local Community Safety Champions’ Reception
hosted by Rt Hon. James Cleverly MP, Home Secretary
at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday 5th December 2023
Please arrive for 4.45pm. Ends: 6.00pm
RSVP: by 12pm 1st December
Important Information
For security and safety reasons, we would kindly ask guests to note the following important points:
Please print this invitation and bring it with you. On arrival at the gates of Downing Street, the police officer will ask to see your invitation and a form of photographic ID (passport or driving licence). Entry will not be permitted without photographic ID.
If you do not have any photographic ID or if the name on your invitation does not match your photographic ID, please contact the Events Office.
Visitors will be subject to an entry search, similar to those found at airports.
All electronic devices (including mobile phones, smart watches, tablets and laptops) must be switched off and left in the front hall.
This invitation is non-transferable and is for the named invitee only.
When Keith Mates, aged 72, received an invitation to attend a function at 10 Downing Street, he thought it was a scam!
Keith spent 39 years in the Police, seven years on the Railways, then 21 years pet-sitting with his wife Sue.
Since retirement his activities include Chairman of the Residents’ Association at Deanland Wood Park, where he lives, and a Co-ordinator of Speed Watch, checking the speed of motorists.
Keith is also a Remote Evidence Facilitator, which is a volunteer job for Sussex Police, supporting vulnerable witnesses so they can give evidence over a video link without having to face the Defendant in Court. There’s a video suite on one level for this and also for anyone who is disabled and can’t physically get into the Court.
He’s an active Member of the Lions, which is the largest Service Organisation in the world.
And in his free time, Keith is a Freemason.
LYN. Maria Caulfield, the Lewes MP contacted you. What did she say? Why were you invited to attend No 10?
KEITH. She nominated me as a Community Safety Champion and the first I knew of it was when the nomination had been accepted and I got an email from the Event Co-ordinator of No 10 inviting me to attend! As I said, I thought it was a spoof, so I replied, copying Maria in to the reply.
I was then contacted by the Parliamentary Secretary who invited me to Westminster Hall on the same day.
After a short tour of Westminster Hall on the day we were joined by Maria. Maria and I then made our way through the corridors to where the Cenotaph is, across the road and through Security and into No 10. Maria of course knew the way.

The front wall is just a façade. It’s like walking into a Tardis! It’s just the entrance into a huge complex.
As you go in, the Cabinet Office is on the left. After leaving our phones at the door, we walked forwards and up a staircase. The left wall has paintings of all the former Prime Ministers, but it’s completely full, so there’s no room for Rishi!
On the 1st floor, in the Reception Area, there were drinks and canapes waiting for us.
On the right was a large room where we stood chatting with the other Community Safety Champions. There were about 250 of us. Each MP could nominate one Community Safety Champion so I was very flattered that Maria had nominated me.
James Cleverly the Home Secretary was supposed to have been there to greet us, but he’d been unexpectedly sent to Rwanda. So Thomas Tugendhat, the PM for Tonbridge and Malling, had stepped into the job. He’s the Minister for Security.
He thanked us all for our involvement with our local Community, making it a safer place. Then we were given a tour of the 1st floor, which has the two State dining rooms off to the left.
The first one is for private meals with a dozen people. Beyond it there is a very well-known room. It’s where the daily covid updates were televised.
All round the oak-panelled walls are glass cabinets with a varied display of artifacts from different countries. When a VIP from a foreign country visits and a State Dinner is held in that room, all previous gifts from that country have to be sorted out and displayed in the cabinets, carefully making sure that nothing is forgotten.
Off the Reception area is the Margaret Thatcher Room. Mrs Thatcher had it furnished and decorated, with sofas and a bathroom, for when she wanted to take a breather. And all PMs have used it for a short break ever since.
Gordon Brown managed to lock himself in the bathroom. He was shouting and banging on the door for an hour and a half before anyone realised that he was missing!
Luckily I managed to use the bathroom without locking myself inside.
The top floor is all private accommodation.
It was time to leave and we all took turns having our photo taken outside the famous black door with 10 on the front, while a bemused Larry the cat sat and watched us.
We had heard that if an MP goes in the front door, he’s given a job. But if an MP goes in the back door, he’s given the sack.
So when I arrived back home in Sussex, Sue my wife asked me if I’d been offered a job as I’d gone in through the front door!
No I hadn’t. But it was a very interesting, memorable day and I’ll never forget it as long as I live.
And I’m very grateful to Maria for nominating me.

Maria Caulfield
Maria Caulfield is the Conservative MP for Lewes, and has been an MP continuously since 7 May 2015. She currently holds the Government posts of Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care), and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women).