9 min read23 December 2025

The note that changed Paul Kehoe’s life was scribbled on a scrap of brown paper more than 46 years ago. “Paul, if you would like a job as an attendant (a kind of porter) for the Serjeant at Arms dept House of Commons, then could you attend the Hall Keeper’s Lodge House of Commons at 10.45 on 21 June 1979 and ask for Mr Hazard.”

Kehoe was 19 years old. Born in Stockwell and raised in Brixton, the son of a dustman and a cleaner, he never imagined he might one day be part of the fabric of the Palace of Westminster. Now he is one of its most recognisable figures, with more than 80 current and former MPs commenting on his recent LinkedIn post to celebrate the anniversary of his most recent promotion, thanking him for his kindness over the years.

“I couldn’t believe I was walking into the House of Commons going for an interview,” Kehoe tells The House, recalling his first day entering Parliament. “When the interview was over, I was still standing around in Westminster Hall just looking at it, thinking, how do I tell my mum about this place?”

Now 66, he is a senior doorkeeper, a role he carries out with contagious humour. “In my role now, I can go in and out of the Prime Minister’s office and be this close to the King,” he says, holding a hand up in front of him to indicate the distance.

“Not in a million years could anyone think I would be doing that, because from our street that I grew up in, we were the poorest family. I’m one of seven children, and my mum and dad struggled to make ends meet, but they got us through it, and all seven children are still surviving, all got various different jobs.”

When we meet, Parliament is beginning to look festive. Christmas lights are twinkling around the estate and staff are wandering the halls in the famous Commons jumper. Kehoe, with his big white beard, wide grin, and a habit of occasionally handing out sweets to MPs on his good list, resembles a real-life Santa Claus.

Doorkeepers, while little known to those outside of Parliament, are essential to the running of the Palace of Westminster and the politics carried out inside it. They are there to supervise different areas of the palace, recognise every single Member of Parliament and ensure nobody wanders into places where they are not meant to be, offer directions and answer questions – from where MPs are allowed to take guests to how many votes are expected in the Commons. They also often provide MPs with personal support, and Kehoe recalls accommodating MPs who needed additional assistance, such as former home secretary David (now Lord) Blunkett, who was the first MP to bring a guide dog into the Commons chamber.

Today, Kehoe’s work on the officials’ corridor brings him into daily contact with ministers and senior officials.

“On my mobile phone I’ve got about five or six PM’s ex-secretaries’ numbers,” he says, explaining how he would receive calls asking him to fetch something – often a bottle of whisky – from an office on behalf of a member.

He also gives the occasional tour, and his love of the building and its traditions is unmistakable. The prestige surrounding the place is clearly incredibly important to him, and he rejects the idea that Parliament should relocate in the future due to the many restoration issues faced by the creaking 19th-century palace.

It’s no wonder Kehoe feels attached to the building. In its halls, he has met more public figures than most people would see in several lifetimes. As we talk, he casually mentions encounters with the Duchess of Westminster, the Crown Prince of Japan nodding at him as he passed, President Bill Clinton waving from his car outside St Stephen’s entrance, and standing on duty as Mikhail Gorbachev walked through Parliament in 1989. During the coronation of King Charles in 2023 he met Katy Perry and had his photo taken with her (his current WhatsApp photo). He also met Pierce Brosnan in the years when he was playing James Bond.

But nothing surpasses his proudest moment: assisting with her late majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s lying in state in Westminster Hall.

“It was an honour and a privilege… I never thought I’d be involved in that and to be there for Her Majesty and treat everyone the same, everyone got treated with the greatest respect by me.”

Parliament, he says, is “a family”. Sat in the Terrace cafe, he gestures mid-interview to Jeremy Corbyn and his staff at a nearby table, waving to them cheerily. Having gone through a tough year in his personal life, Kehoe says he is “deeply grateful” to his colleagues Christine Eldred, Phil Howse and Terry Dean for supporting him through it.

He compares losing Members at general elections to feeling like losing relatives. “It feels like you’re going to a funeral, because you’ve lost many of your family.”

Among the MPs he remembers most fondly is the late Mo Mowlam. “One of my best memories from that time was when Mo Mowlam became Northern Ireland secretary, she didn’t forget anyone in Parliament. She sent us all Christmas cards, individual Christmas cards. Invited the whole building, cleaners, engineers, carpenters, the attendants, all to the Northern Ireland Christmas drinks.”

“I do remember that she had no airs and graces about her at all,” he adds. On one occasion in central lobby, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Kehoe told her: “You can’t be doing that, the Sarjeant is over there!” She responded: “Sod him, kiss me again.”

Of course, not all of Kehoe’s memories of Parliament are so rosy, having worked through many moments of conflict and crisis.

He remembers the chaos of Margaret Thatcher being voted out as leader in the 1922 Committee room in 1990. In the ensuing leadership contest to determine the next prime minister, Kehoe was working in Old Palace Yard when he witnessed the intensity between the rival Michael Heseltine and John Major camps.

In one clash between two secretaries, “one in the Heseltine camp picked up a dog’s bowl of water and threw it over the other young lady”. Kehoe and other members of staff helped to dry her off, only for the thrower to reappear minutes later asking if staff would contribute to a colleague’s leaving present. “Hang on a second. You just threw water all over this girl!”

Kehoe’s long service includes some of Parliament’s darkest days. He was on duty during the 2017 Westminster terror attack, when six people, including the attacker, were killed.

“I was in central lobby with the Speaker’s chaplain for five hours handing out water,” he says. “We had about 500 people locked in central lobby, and we had limited water, but we managed to get a supply in later that afternoon… but that was scary.”

One of the victims was parliamentary police officer Keith Palmer. “He was part of our family,” Kehoe says. “I had to deal with his family in the Speaker’s house as a doorkeeper… there was a great sense of grief throughout the palace.”

He also knew Jo Cox and Sir David Amess, MPs who were both murdered in their constituencies. “Jo Cox was the first person to sponsor my beard shave-offs… Gave me £20 and refused to take the change.”

Sir David, he says, went out of his way to know everyone, “be it a heating engineer to a cleaner to catering staff to the person who washes the dishes”.

On the rising levels of abuse towards MPs, he is firm in his condemnation. “People online say they’re all as bad as each other. They’re in it for their own money. They’re not going around the constituency. But I see some of these Members walking miles every day from this meeting to that meeting, to going outside to meetings before coming back in for a vote, 20-30,000 steps a day.

“Elder statesmen who have done their bit in committee, have done their bit in the chamber, are still here to pass their knowledge on and be an active part of the chamber. So, when it comes to abuse, it shouldn’t be given. They need to come here and see their Members at work.”

Kehoe’s CV spans almost every corner of the parliamentary estate and every category of attendant and office keeper role: the press gallery, central lobby, St Stephen’s House, Old Palace Yard, Millbank, Dean’s Yard, Abbey Gardens, Norman Shaw, the service centre and more.

The many jobs he has held have not gone without incident, including accidentally nearly causing a fire on the estate after emptying an ashtray that was still smouldering into a bin. “When a little bit of smoke came out, they called the fire people into the House saying ‘Paul done that!’”

Over the festive period, Kehoe will get a well-deserved break when Parliament is in recess. But he will be on duty for the New Year’s Eve shift on the terrace to watch the fireworks, his 12th year ensuring celebrations do not get out of hand. He refuses to name names, but one year a visitor who was a “bit too merry” had to be walked to St Thomas’ Hospital after falling in the ladies’ toilets near Strangers Bar.

At 66, he has no plans to retire. “Not as long as I’ve got reasonably good health,” he says.

As a young, working-class man, Kehoe stood in Westminster Hall wondering how he could ever possibly belong in such a majestic, historic building. Nearly half a century later, he knows and understands it better than anyone.