Michael John Mates (born 9 June 1934) is a Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of

East Hampshire East Hampshire is a local government district in Hampshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Petersfield, although the largest town is Alton. The district also contains the town of Bordon along with many villages and surroundin ...

from

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. He was a minister at the

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; , Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for handling Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of S ...

from 1992 to 1993, resigning after his support for failed businessman (and later convicted thief)

Asil Nadir Asilkan Nadir (1 May 1941 – 9 February 2025) was a British Turkish Cypriot businessman. He was the chief executive of Polly Peck, which he took over as a small textile company. During the 1980s, he expanded it into one of the United Kingdom's ...

damaged his reputation. After his long career at Westminster, Mates lost the election for police commissioner in Hampshire in August 2012.

Early life and education

Mates was born on 9 June 1934 in

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, England. He was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School,

Blundell's School Blundell's School is an Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent co-educational boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school in the English Public School (United Kingdom), public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon, T ...

and

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, where he was a choral scholar.

Career

Military, 1955–1974

On 18 June 1955, Mates was commissioned into the

Royal Ulster Rifles The Royal Irish Rifles (became the Royal Ulster Rifles from 1 January 1921) was an light infantry rifle regiment of the British Army, first created in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot and the 86th (Royal ...

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, as a second lieutenant. On 1 February 1957, he was promoted to

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

. On 3 January 1959, he transferred from a short service commission to a regular commission. On 10 March 1961, Mates transferred from the Royal Ulster Rifles to 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards. He was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

on 9 June 1961, and to

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

on 31 December 1967. Prior to his election to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

, Mates served for twenty years in the

leaving in 1974 with the rank of lieutenant colonel with the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards.

Parliament, 1974–2010

Michael Mates was a Member of Parliament for 35 years. He was first elected in the October 1974 general election for

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own Petersfield railway station, railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rai ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, following the retirement of Joan Quennell. The constituency was renamed

in 1983 and he continued to serve as MP until the 2010 general election, having announced his intention in 2006 not to stand again. From 1992 to 1993, Mates was

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

at the

. He resigned after a scandal involving his links to fugitive businessman

. In his 28-minute resignation speech he defied Commons Speaker

Betty Boothroyd Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd (8 October 1929 – 26 February 2023), was a British politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich (UK Parliament constituency), West Bromwich an ...

by attacking the Serious Fraud Office’s handling of the case against Nadir in breach of Commons rules on ''

sub judice In law, ''sub judice'', Latin for "under a judge", means that a particular case or matter is under trial or being considered by a judge or court. The term may be used synonymously with "the present case" or "the case at bar" by some lawyers. I ...

''. Nadir was eventually convicted in the case of ten counts of theft amounting to £29m. Mates served as the chairman of the Defence (1987–1992) and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

(2001–2005) select committees and chaired the All-Party Anglo-Irish Parliamentary Group. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in February 2004.

Police Commissioner candidacy, 2012

In July 2012 Mates was selected as the Conservative candidate in the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

for

Police and crime commissioner A police and crime commissioner (PCC; ) is an elected official in England and Wales responsible for generally overseeing police services. A police, fire and crime commissioner (PFCC) is an elected official in England responsible for generally ...

for

, notwithstanding his links to Asil Nadir who, in August 2012 was convicted of theft amounting to £29m. In the 1990s, when a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office, Mates expressed his support for Nadir by sending him a watch inscribed with the words "don't let the buggers get you down" – a reference to an ongoing investigation into Nadir's fraudulent financial activities by British authorities. In August 2012 Nadir was found guilty at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

of fraud, and convicted of stealing nearly £29 million. Despite this Mates maintained his support for Nadir, including testifying in his defence at the Old Bailey. In September 2012 Michael Crick of ''Channel 4 News'' said that Mates had repeatedly refused to answer questions about a windfall he received having vacated a sitting tenancy at Dolphin Square, central London, when an MP. Two city councillors publicly stated that he should step down, while Conservative MP George Hollingbery, who oversaw the party's selection process for the commissioner candidates, said: "Michael Mates was selected after a transparent process involving both the public and party members. Michael is a candidate with a wealth of experience in high public office and the party believes he will make an excellent first police commissioner." In 2012 Mates was reported to Hampshire Constabulary for

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

under the

Fraud Act 2006 The Fraud Act 2006 (c 35) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which affects England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It was given royal assent on 8 November 2006, and came into effect on 15 January 2007. Purpose The Act gives a sta ...

by competitor Don Jerrard who was standing for The Justice & Anti-Corruption Party. The former lawyer wrote to the county's Chief Constable alleging that Mates breached the 2006 Fraud Act by giving his address as a house where he rents rooms in Winchester. Parallel to this, Hampshire police confirmed two complaints of alleged racist language in Mates' Election Statement were passed to the Thames Valley Police for investigation.

Thames Valley Police Thames Valley Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley region, covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in South East England. It is the largest non-metropolitan police force ...

were said to be getting ready to interview Mates, but it was not known whether this would be done under caution. Mates denied the allegations, saying he was the victim of a smear campaign. In 2014 Mates received an apology and undisclosed damages from the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

. He also received an apology from Hampshire Constabulary. Mates described the 18 months between the allegations and his vindication as "a nightmare".

Controversies

The

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

revealed that Mates was minority shareholder of an

offshore investment Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have ser ...

company named Haylandale Limited from 2005 to at least April 2010, the end of his parliamentary period, and owned four subsidiary firms from August 2007 to December 2008 for leasing and services connected to luxury properties in

The Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

. Mates had, however, previously declared that he was the remunerated Chairman of Haylandale, which undertook property development in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, in the Register of Members' Interests for the period of 2005 to 2010.

Personal life

Michael Mates has been married three times: to Mary Rosamund Paton in 1959, divorced 1980; Rosellen Bett in 1982, divorced 1995; and Christine Robinson-Moltke in 1998. He is the father of James Mates, a senior reporter and presenter for

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

. Partnered by composer William Godfree, Mates regularly performs tributes to

Flanders and Swann Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo and musicians. Michael Flanders (1922–1975) was a lyricist, actor, and singer. He collaborated with Donald Swann (1923–1994), a composer and pianist, in writing and performing comedy music, comic ...

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

and others in aid of charity.

Bibliography

* Mates, Michael ''The Secret Service: Is There A Case For Greater Openness?'' Alliance Publishers, 1989. * Hurd, Douglas & Mates, Michael et al. ''What's Wrong With British Foreign Policy?'' Tory Reform Group, 2007

References

External links

TheyWorkForYou.com – Michael Mates MP
*

Audio clips

Discussing Iraq in 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mates, Michael 1934 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards officers People from Petersfield Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Choral Scholars of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge People educated at Blundell's School People educated at Salisbury Cathedral School People of The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Royal Ulster Rifles officers People named in the Panama Papers Northern Ireland Office junior ministers