Kevin Foster (politician)

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For other people named Kevin Foster, see Kevin Foster (disambiguation).

Kevin Foster
MP
Official portrait of Kevin Foster crop 2.jpg
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safe and Legal Migration
Assumed office
16 December 2019
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded bySeema Kennedy
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 43)
Plymouth, United Kingdom
Political partyConservative
Alma materUniversity of Warwick
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 (MP) for Torbay since 2015. Foster has served under Home Secretary Priti Patel as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safe and Legal Migration since 2019.

Early life and career[]

Kevin Foster was born in Plymouth, Devon on 31 December 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).[2] After graduating from university, he worked in the West Midlands as a paralegal and secretary for a number of firms.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5]

Parliamentary career[]

Foster contested Coventry South in 2010 general election, coming second to incumbent Labour Party MP Jim Cunningham.[6]

Foster was elected at the 2015 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torbay in 2015.[7][8] 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.[9] 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".[10]

Foster supported the United Kingdom (UK) remaining within the European Union (EU) prior to the 2016 membership referendum,[11] but since then has almost always voted against UK membership of the EU in Parliament.[12]

In the June 2017 general election, he held his seat with a majority of 14,283 (27.9%).[13] Foster voted for then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019.[14] He was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) in the Department for Communities and Local Government.[15] He later became PPS to then Minister for the Cabinet Office David Lidington.[16]

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.[17]

In December 2019, Foster was appointed as the Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State for Immigration, succeeding Seema Kennedy.

Personal life[]

Kevin Foster married Hazel Noonan (b. 1951) in 2017. They met in Coventry when he was a University of Warwick student. He was helping her to canvas for the Conservative Party in the local council elections in which she was a candidate. With a 28-year age gap, Foster has been compared to the French politician Emmanuel Macron, who is also substantially younger than his partner.[18]

References[]

  1. ^ "No. 61230". The London Gazette. 18 May 2015. p. 9121.
  2. ^ ‘Foster, Kevin John’, Who's Who 2016, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2016
  3. ^ "Linkedin". Linkedin. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  4. ^ "Coventry City Council Election Results 1973-2012" (PDF). Plymouth University. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  5. ^ "Coventry Tory leader Kevin Foster to stand down". Coventry Telegraph. 25 April 2013.
  6. ^ "Coventry South". BBC News. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  7. ^ "Torbay Parliamentary constituency". BBC. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  8. ^ "General Election 2015: Tories oust Devon Lib Dems". BBC. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  9. ^ Morris, Steven (12 April 2017). "Devon and Cornwall PCC expenses inquiry file sent to prosecutors". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  10. ^ Howells, Sarah (10 May 2017). "Investigation into PCC Alison Hernandez's election spending is dropped by CPS". North Devon Gazette. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  11. ^ "EU vote: Where the cabinet and other MPs stand". BBC News. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  12. ^ TheyWorkForYou: Kevin Foster (retrieved 10 February 2021)
  13. ^ "Torbay". BBC News. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  14. ^ "How MPs voted on May's withdrawal deal defeat". Financial Times. 29 March 2019. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019.
  15. ^ "Parliamentary Private Secretaries: full list". Conservative Home. 28 June 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  16. ^ "List of PPS's". Conservative Home. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  17. ^ "Full list of new ministerial and government appointments: July 2019". gov.uk. 30 July 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  18. ^ "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 by Member of Parliament
for Torbay
2015–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from ""