George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock (born 21 January 1942) is a Scottish politician and life peer who served as

Minister of State for Scotland The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland is a junior ministerial post (of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State rank) in the Government of the United Kingdom, supporting the Secretary of State for Scotland. The post is also kno ...

from 2001 to 2002. A member of the Scottish Labour Party and

Co-operative Party The Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, supporting co-operative values and principles. Established in 1917, the Co-operative Party was founded by co-operative societies to campaign politically for the fair ...

, he was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, formerly South Ayrshire, from

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

to 2005. He was later a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the Lothians region, from 2007 to 2011. Born in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, Foulkes was educated at

Keith Grammar School Keith Grammar School is a secondary school in, Moray, Scotland. It was built in 1965 by the Educational Committee of Banffshire County Council. the school roll was 450 pupils. It is administered by the Moray Council Education and Social Care Depa ...

in Moray and privately at

The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School Haberdashers' Boys' School (also known as Haberdashers', Habs, or Habs Boys), until September 2021 known as Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, is a public school for pupils age 4 to 18 in Elstree, Hertfordshire, England. The school is a me ...

West Hampstead West Hampstead is an area in the London Borough of Camden in north-west London. Mainly defined by the railway stations of the same name, it is situated between Childs Hill to the north, Frognal and Hampstead to the north-east, Swiss Cottage ...

and studied

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. He served as President of the

Scottish Union of Students The National Union of Students Scotland ( gd, Aonadh Nàiseanta na Oileanaich na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Union o Collegianers Scotland) is an autonomous body within the National Union of Students. It is the national representative body of aro ...

before being elected to

City of Edinburgh District Council The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

and

Lothian Regional Council Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sc ...

. After unsuccessfully contesting Edinburgh West in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

and Edinburgh Pentlands in October 1974, he was elected to represent South Ayrshire in parliament at the 1979 general election and to represent Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley at the 1983 general election following boundary changes. Appointed to the opposition frontbench in 1983, Foulkes served as a shadow Europe minister, shadow foreign and Commonwealth affairs minister and shadow defence minister respectively. He was forced to resign from the latter role in 1993, after striking a police officer and being convicted of being drunk and disorderly. He rejoined the frontbench in 1994 as a shadow overseas aid minister. After the Labour Party won the 1997 general election, he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to 2001 and

from 2001 to 2002. He stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election. While serving as a delegate to the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up ...

, Foulkes joined the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

in June 2005 and was appointed to the Privy Council in July. Elected at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election on the Lothians regional list, he was critical of the conduct of the minority Scottish National Party (SNP) government and campaigned for presumed consent for organ donation. He stood down from the Scottish Parliament at the 2011 election. In the Lords, he continued to be loyal to the

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

government and supported the ongoing

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

and proposals for mandatory identity cards. During the 2009 expenses controversy, he accused presenters who questioned MPs' expenses of undermining democracy. He was a critic of Labour leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

for failing to tackle antisemitism in the party and made calls for

Richard Leonard Richard Leonard (born January 1962) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2017 to 2021. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the Central Scotland ...

to resign as

Leader of the Scottish Labour Party The office of Leader of the Scottish Labour Party was established when the Scottish Parliament was formed in 1999 and prior to its inaugural election. Until the Murphy and Boyack review in 2011, the office was Leader of the Labour Party in the ...

Early life and career

Foulkes was born in Oswestry,

, and raised in Banffshire, later Moray, where he was educated at the state secondary

. He later attended the independent, fee-paying

Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School Haberdashers' Boys' School (also known as Haberdashers', Habs, or Habs Boys), until September 2021 known as Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, is a Independent school (United Kingdom), public school for pupils age 4 to 18 in Elstree, Hertfo ...

. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

from the

, where he was Senior President of the Students' Representative Council in 1963. He later became the full-time President of the

, after which he was elected as a City of Edinburgh district councillor for the

Sighthill Sighthill may refer to: * Sighthill, Edinburgh Sighthill is a suburb in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area is bordered by Broomhouse and Parkhead to the east, South Gyle to the north, the industrial suburb of Bankhead and the Calders ...

ward and then as a member of

House of Commons

Before gaining election to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the 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 parliament. T ...

, Foulkes unsuccessfully contested Edinburgh West in

, being beaten by the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

candidate Anthony Stodart. In October 1974, he stood for Edinburgh Pentlands but was beaten by

Malcolm Rifkind Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind (born 21 June 1946) is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from ...

. He was first elected in the 1979 general election, as

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and Co-operative

for South Ayrshire. After the constituency's abolition in boundary changes, he was elected in the 1983 general election for the new constituency of Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley. In 1981, Foulkes drafted a political bill called the "Control of Space Invaders (and other Electronic Games) Bill" in an attempt to ban the game for its "addictive properties" and for causing "deviancy". The bill was debated and only narrowly defeated in parliament by 114 to 94 votes. He introduced the first-ever proposals for a smoking ban in public places in 1982 and legislation against

age discrimination Ageism, also spelled agism, is discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors, and patterned on sexism and racism. Butler def ...

in 1985, both through

private member's bills A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in w ...

. A supporter of Scottish devolution, he was involved in the drafting of " A Claim of Right for Scotland" in 1988. After serving on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and

, Foulkes was appointed to the Opposition

frontbench In many parliaments and other similar assemblies, seating is typically arranged in banks or rows, with each political party or caucus grouped together. The spokespeople for each group will often sit at the front of their group, and are then know ...

in 1983, serving as a shadow Europe minister and later a shadow foreign and Commonwealth affairs minister. In 1992, he was made Shadow Minister for Defence, Disarmament and Arms Control. He was forced to resign in 1993, after being convicted of being drunk and disorderly during an incident in which he struck a police officer. He returned to the frontbench in 1994, serving as deputy to Overseas Aid spokespersons

Joan Lestor Joan Lestor, Baroness Lestor of Eccles (13 November 1931 – 27 March 1998) was a British Labour politician. Early life Lestor was educated at Blaenavon Secondary School, Monmouth; William Morris High School, Walthamstow and the University o ...

and

Clare Short Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003. Short was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood from 1983 t ...

until 1997. When Labour won the general election in 1997, Foulkes was appointed

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister ...

at the new Department for International Development. He was then

from 2001 until a May 2002

cabinet reshuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parli ...

. He stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election.

House of Lords

George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock - 20060624

On 13 May 2005, it was announced that Foulkes was to receive a

life peerage In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages A ...

. On 16 June 2005, he was created Baron Foulkes of Cumnock, ''of

Cumnock Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie just ...

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire ( sco, Aest Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir an Ear) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquar ...

''. He was made a member of the Privy Council in July of that year. He continued to be an "ultra loyalist" to the 1997–2010 Labour government. He was a strong supporter of 2006 government proposals for mandatory identity cards. He also continued to support the

and described

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

's conduct of the war as clearly intentioned, carried through brilliantly and resulting in much improvement for the people of Iraq. Commenting on Sir Christopher Meyer's testimony to the

Iraq Inquiry The Iraq Inquiry (also referred to as the Chilcot Inquiry after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot) Foulkes was a member of the

Intelligence and Security Committee The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community. The committee was established in 1994 by the ...

in the Cabinet Office from 2007 to 2010 and the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy from 2010 to 2015. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Board of Governors of the

Westminster Foundation for Democracy The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body set up to support democratic institutions overseas. It was established on 26 February 1992 and registered as a company limited by guarantee in the U ...

. Since March 2011, he has been a member of the Lords EU Select Committee and Lords EU Sub Committee on Social Policy and Consumer Protection. Foulkes is very active on Caribbean matters, serving as president of the Caribbean Council, chair of the

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

and

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

All-Party Parliamentary Group An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...

s (APPGs), and vice-chair of the

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

and British–

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

APPGs. He is also a member of

Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Isra ...

. In April 2008, Foulkes was criticised for his expenses claims. Between April 2007 and March 2008, he claimed £54,527 in expenses from the House of Lords but, in January 2009, was shown to have one of the lowest expenses claims in the Scottish Parliament. During the 2009 expenses controversy, he attacked media presenters in an exchange with the BBC's

Carrie Gracie Carrie Gracie (born 1962)Ben Dowel"Carrie Gracie profile: Award-winning journalist with years at World Service" theguardian.com, 12 May 2009 is a Scottish journalist and newsreader best known as having been China Editor for BBC News. She resign ...

. He said some presenters, such as

Jeremy Paxman Jeremy Dickson Paxman (born 11 May 1950) is an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and television presenter. Born in Leeds, Paxman was educated at Malvern College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate new ...

and

John Humphrys Desmond John Humphrys (born 17 August 1943) is a Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter for the '' Nine O'Clock News'', the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until 2019 he presented on the BBC Radio 4 ...

, were being paid to "sneer at democracy and undermine democracy". However, in August 2009, Foulkes made a series of

Freedom of Information Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, Indigeno ...

requests about the expenses of retiring

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

head General Sir

Richard Dannatt General Francis Richard Dannatt, Baron Dannatt, (born 23 December 1950) is a retired senior British Army officer and member of the House of Lords. He was Chief of the General Staff (head of the Army) from 2006 to 2009. Dannatt was commissioned ...

. He was accused by

Shadow Defence Secretary The Shadow Secretary of State for Defence is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Defence and the department, the Ministry of Defence. The post is currently held by John Healey. Shadow S ...

Liam Fox Liam Fox (born 22 September 1961) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Trade from 2016 to 2019 and Secretary of State for Defence from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Conservative Party, Fox has served as t ...

of leading a New Labour smear campaign. Foulkes was one of the fifty signatories to a letter published in ''The Guardian'' in 2010, which called for

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

not to be given a state visit to the UK, and accused the Catholic Church of increasing the spread of Aids and promoting segregated education. On 24 August 2011, ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

'' reported that he had announced he would table an amendment to the Scotland Bill with the intention to make it impossible for the Scottish Government to sustain free university education for students in Scotland. On 2 February 2012, he tabled a motion calling for the

Scottish independence referendum A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side wo ...

to contain no extra question on increased devolution, and proposing a separate referendum be held on the subject in the event independence were rejected and Scotland voted to stay in the UK. Foulkes in July 2019 was among 67 Labour peers to lend their names to an unauthorised advertisement in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' which criticised

for failing to effectively tackle antisemitism in the party. In August, he said

and

Lesley Laird Lesley Margaret Laird (' Langan; born 15 November 1958) is a Scottish politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2017 to 2019. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2017 to 2019, and ...

should resign as Leader and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party respectively, accusing Leonard of having "no charisma and no leadership credentials" and saying "almost anyone would be better" than Laird. He repeated calls for Leonard to resign in July 2020.

Scottish Parliament

Foulkes returned to electoral politics in 2007 when he was first on Scottish Labour's Lothians regional list in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. He appeared in place of leader

Jack McConnell Jack Wilson McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, (born 30 June 1960) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2001 to 2007. McConnell served as the Minister ...

on a February 2007 ''

Question Time A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

'' special and accused Scottish National Party leader

Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader ...

of acting in a "xenophobic way" for saying

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

was an example of "London Labour". Former Scottish Labour leader Henry McLeish joined others calling on Foulkes to apologise for the claim. He was elected as a Member of the Scottish Parliament on 3 May 2007. After his election, he appeared on the BBC's ''Scotland at Ten'' radio program and criticised the SNP for "trying to build up a situation in Scotland where the services are manifestly better than south of the border in a number of areas" in an interview. When asked by presenter Colin Mackay "Is that a bad thing?", Foulkes responded, "No, but they are doing it deliberately." In the Scottish Parliament, Foulkes was part of Labour's opposition to the minority SNP government, regularly tabling parliamentary questions criticising the Scottish Government's conduct. He highlighted several supposed irregularities, including the taxpayer-funded entertaining of wealthy SNP backers at

Bute House Bute House (Gaelic: ''Taigh Bhòid'') is the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland located within Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. Alongside two other personal offices at the Scottish Parliament Building and St. Andrew's House, ...

and preferential treatment for Stagecoach in the Forth hovercraft project, after their co-founder

Brian Souter Sir Brian Souter (born 5 May 1954) is a Scottish businessman. With his sister, Ann Gloag, he founded the Stagecoach Group of bus and rail operators. He also founded the bus and coach operator Megabus, the train operating company South West Train ...

donated £500,000 to the SNP. Foulkes became a target of criticism by SNP bloggers, whom he branded " Cybernats". He was also part of a campaign for presumed consent on

organ donation Organ donation is the process when a person allows an organ of their own to be removed and transplanted to another person, legally, either by consent while the donor is alive or dead with the assent of the next of kin. Donation may be for re ...

. Foulkes did not seek re-election in the

2011 Scottish Parliament election The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the Additional M ...

, with the Lothian list instead returning

Sarah Boyack Sarah Herriot Boyack (born 16 May 1961) is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region since 2019, and previously from 2011 to 2016. She formerly represented the Edinburgh Cent ...

Neil Findlay Neil Findlay (born 6 March 1969) is a Scottish politician who was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Lothian from 2011 to 2021. A member of Scottish Labour, he was previously a councillor in West Lothian from 2003 to 2012. Earl ...

and

Kezia Dugdale Kezia Alexandra Ross Dugdale (born 28 August 1981) is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2015 to 2017. A former member of the Scottish Labour Party and Co-operative Party, she was a Member of th ...

. Dugdale had previously served as his constituency agent and would go on to become Leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

Council of Europe

In June 2003, Tony Blair appointed Foulkes as a UK delegate to the

and

Assembly of the Western European Union The Assembly of the Western European Union, also called the European Security and Defence Assembly, was a parliamentary assembly for delegations from the national parliaments of the member countries of the Western European Union (WEU), a securit ...

. In January 2022, Foulkes and four other Labour delegates tabled ten amendments to Resolution 2417, "Combating rising hate against LGBTI people in Europe". The amendments sought to include the word "sex" alongside gender identity, de-conflate the situation in the UK from Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey, and remove references to alleged anti-LGBTI movements in the UK. The delegates received both praise and criticism.

Personal life

Foulkes married his wife Elizabeth Anna Hope in 1970 and they have two sons and one daughter together. He was chairman of

Heart of Midlothian football club Heart of Midlothian Football Club, commonly known as Hearts, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Professional Football League. Hearts, the oldest and most successful football club in the S ...

from April 2004 until his resignation in October 2005. He resigned in protest at the majority shareholder

Vladimir Romanov Vladimir Nikolayevich Romanov ( rus, Владимир Николаевич Романов, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr nʲɪkɐˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ rɐˈmanəf, lt, Vladimiras Romanovas; born 15 June 1947)

dismissing Hearts chief executive

Phil Anderton Phil Anderton (born 1965 or 1966) is a Scottish business and marketing executive. He was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish Rugby Union in February 2004, after several years of successful marketing within the SRU. He was ni ...

. He later failed to be elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh on 12 February 2009, securing 31% of the vote to the 69% taken by

Iain Macwhirter Iain Macwhirter (born September 1952) is a Scottish political journalist. He is a political commentator for several newspapers, an author and documentary film and radio presenter and a former Rector of Edinburgh University. He has worked at both ...

References

External links

*
Parliamentary BioTheyWorkForYou
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foulkes, George 1942 births Living people Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Anglo-Scots Heart of Midlothian F.C. directors and chairmen Labour Co-operative MPs for Scottish constituencies Foulkes of Cumnock Labour Friends of Israel Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School People from Oswestry People from Keith, Moray Chairmen and investors of football clubs in Scotland UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 British republicans Members of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011 Life peers created by Elizabeth II