Kevin Foster
MP
Official portrait, 2017
Minister of State for Transport
In office
7 September 2022 – 26 October 2022
Prime MinisterLiz Truss
Preceded byWendy Morton
Succeeded byHuw Merriman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safe and Legal Migration[a]
In office
16 December 2019 – 6 September 2022
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded bySeema Kennedy
Succeeded byTom Pursglove
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales
In office
4 April 2019 – 16 December 2019
Prime MinisterTheresa May
Boris Johnson
Preceded byNigel Adams
Succeeded byDavid Davies
Member of Parliament
for Torbay
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded byAdrian Sanders
Majority17,749 (35.2%)
Personal details
Born (1978-12-31) 31 December 1978 (age 45)
Plymouth, England, UK
Political partyConservative
Alma materUniversity of Warwick
SignatureSignature of Kevin Foster MP
Websitewww.kevinjfoster.com

Kevin John Foster[1] MP (born 31 December 1978) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Torbay since 2015. He served as Minister of State for Transport from September 2022 until October 2022.[2] Foster served under Home Secretary Priti Patel as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safe and Legal Migration from 2019 until September 2022.

Early life and career

Kevin Foster was born in Plymouth, Devon on 31 December 1978 to Michael and Linda Foster. His early education was at the community school Hele's School. Foster studied law at the University of Warwick (LLB, 2000; LLM, 2001).[3] After graduating from university, he worked in the West Midlands as a paralegal and secretary for a number of firms.[4]

Foster stood successfully as the Conservative candidate in the Cheylesmore ward of Coventry City Council in 2002. He was re-elected in 2004, 2007 and 2011.[5] He served as Leader of the opposition for two years in Coventry, before standing down in 2013 to contest the 2015 general election in Torbay.[6]

Parliamentary career

Foster contested Coventry South in 2010 general election, coming second to incumbent Labour Party MP Jim Cunningham.[7]

Foster was elected at the 2015 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torbay in 2015.[8][9] His election agent Alison Hernandez was investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission over allegations she failed to properly declare election expenses that were submitted in her role.[10] This investigation was later dropped in 2017 by the Crown Prosecution Service as although "the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest".[11]

Foster supported the United Kingdom (UK) remaining within the European Union (EU) prior to the 2016 membership referendum,[12] but since then has almost always voted against UK membership of the EU in Parliament.[13]

In the June 2017 general election, he held his seat with a majority of 14,283 (27.9%).[14] Foster voted for then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019.[15] He was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) in the Department for Communities and Local Government.[16] He later became PPS to then Minister for the Cabinet Office David Lidington.[17]

In July 2019, following Boris Johnson becoming prime minister, Foster served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Cabinet Office, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Wales Office, and an assistant government whip.[18]

In December 2019, Foster was appointed as the Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State for Immigration, succeeding Seema Kennedy. His portfolio was changed to Immigration and Future Borders in the 2020 cabinet reshuffle, and was changed again to Safe and Legal Migration in December 2021.

In February 2022, Foster received widespread criticism for stating on Twitter that Ukrainian refugees could use the seasonal worker scheme in order to get into the UK. Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, were among the critics, with the latter saying that Foster's comments showed 'a shameful moral vacuum at the heart of Government'. Foster deleted the tweet within hours.[19][20]

Foster endorsed Liz Truss in the July-September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[21] Following Truss's election as Prime Minister, Foster was appointed as Minister of State for Transport with responsibility for rail.[22] He left the government following Rishi Sunak's appointment as Prime Minister and returned to the backbenches.[23]

Personal life

Kevin Foster married Hazel Noonan (born 1951) in 2017. They met in Coventry when he was a University of Warwick student. He was helping her to canvass for the Conservative Party in the local council elections in which she was a candidate. The 27-year age gap between Foster and Noonan has drawn comparisons to Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, who is also substantially younger than his partner.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Immigration from 2019 to 2020, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Future Borders and Immigration from 2020 to 2021

References

  1. ^ "No. 61230". The London Gazette. 18 May 2015. p. 9121.
  2. ^ "Ministerial Appointments: September 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  3. ^ ‘Foster, Kevin John’, Who's Who 2016, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2016
  4. ^ "Linkedin". Linkedin. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  5. ^ "Coventry City Council Election Results 1973-2012" (PDF). Plymouth University. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  6. ^ "Coventry Tory leader Kevin Foster to stand down". Coventry Telegraph. 25 April 2013.
  7. ^ "Coventry South". BBC News. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  8. ^ "Torbay Parliamentary constituency". BBC. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  9. ^ "General Election 2015: Tories oust Devon Lib Dems". BBC News. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  10. ^ Morris, Steven (12 April 2017). "Devon and Cornwall PCC expenses inquiry file sent to prosecutors". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  11. ^ Howells, Sarah (10 May 2017). "Investigation into PCC Alison Hernandez's election spending is dropped by CPS". North Devon Gazette. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  12. ^ "EU vote: Where the cabinet and other MPs stand". BBC News. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  13. ^ TheyWorkForYou: Kevin Foster (retrieved 10 February 2021)
  14. ^ "Torbay". BBC News. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  15. ^ "How MPs voted on May's withdrawal deal defeat". Financial Times. 29 March 2019. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019.
  16. ^ "Parliamentary Private Secretaries: full list". Conservative Home. 28 June 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  17. ^ "List of PPS's". Conservative Home. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  18. ^ "Full list of new ministerial and government appointments: July 2019". gov.uk. 30 July 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  19. ^ "A Tory Minister Has Suggested Ukrainian Refugees Come To The UK To Pick Fruit". Huff Post. 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  20. ^ "Ukraine conflict: UK urgently looking at help for refugees - Truss". BBC News Online. 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  21. ^ House, Coffee (19 July 2022). "Who's backing whom? Sunak still ahead | The Spectator". www.spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  22. ^ "Minister of State - GOV.UK". Archived from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  23. ^ Foster, Kevin [@kevin_j_foster] (26 October 2022). "Just spoken with @RishiSunakand sorry to be leaving Govt, but will be busy representing our bay from the backbenches in @HouseofCommons tomorrow" (Tweet). Retrieved 10 November 2022 – via Twitter.
  24. ^ "Relative Values: Kevin Foster MP, 38, and his 66-year-old wife, Hazel — the British Macrons". Sunday Times. 3 December 2017.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom Preceded byAdrian Sanders Member of Parliamentfor Torbay 2015–present Incumbent
Conservative Members of Parliament in the South West of England
Ministers of State for Immigration of the United Kingdom
Authority control databases: People
Categories