Jacqueline Foster, Baroness Foster of Oxton, (''née'' Renshaw) is a British

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politician and a former Member of the

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for the

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

region. In October 2019 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In December 2020, it was announced she would be conferred a

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after a

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by Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

as part of the

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. In January 2021, she was elevated to the Lords as Baroness Foster of Oxton, of Oxton in the County of Merseyside.

Early career

Jacqueline Foster was born in Liverpool and educated at Prescot Girls' Grammar School. She worked for

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

for more than twenty years. Between 1981 and '85 she left

and became Area Manager in Austria for Horizon, a British Tour Operator before returning to

four years later. In 1989, she was one of the founder members of Cabin Crew '89, an independent

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

and served as the Deputy General Secretary. She continued with British Airways until she was elected as an MEP in 1999. She also lived and worked in France and Spain. She speaks French and German.

Political involvement

In 1988, following

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

Bruges Speech The Bruges speech was given by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to the College of Europe at the Belfry of Bruges, Belgium, on 20 September 1988. Thatcher was opposed to any moves to transition the European Economic Community (EEC) into ...

, she opposed Britain joining a single European currency as well as signing up to the Social Chapter. Despite her positive experiences living and working in Europe, she maintained a Euro-scepticism due to her concern about the future of EU integration. She openly supported the United Kingdom leaving the EU following the Referendum in 2016. Foster combined her trade union activities with membership of 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 ...

, serving as Vice Chairman of

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Conservative Association as well as holding a variety of voluntary political offices for the Greater London area. In the 1992 general election, she was the Conservative candidate in Newham South, a Labour-held seat in east London. Against the national trend, Foster cut the Labour majority. She was shortlisted as the candidate for

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

in the by-election of 1994 but lost out in selection.

1997 UK general election

She continued to look for selection and in November 1995 was beaten by

Eric Forth Eric Forth (9 September 1944 – 17 May 2006) was a British Conservative politician. He served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Birmingham North from 1979 to 1984. He then served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Worcestershir ...

in the selection for

Bromley and Chislehurst Bromley and Chislehurst is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2006 by Bob Neill, a Conservative. Constituency profile This constituency is relatively prosperous in terms of income, h ...

. In August 1996 she was selected for the marginal seat of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, where sitting Conservative MP Brian Mawhinney was moving to an adjacent constituency. She moved to

to fight the campaign and was among the Conservative candidates at that election who declared their personal opposition to the

single European currency The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . Th ...

1999 European election

At the

1999 European Parliament election The 1999 European Parliament election was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and ...

, Foster was selected by Conservatives in the

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

as fifth on their list. She won the last seat available on the list system.

Work as MEP

During this first mandate (1999-2004), she was elected annually as the chairman of the Backbench Committee of MEPs. Her political responsibilities were as the Conservative Spokesman on Transport and Tourism and as a Member of the Industry Committee. She specialised in the aviation sector, with other responsibilities including maritime, road and rail. Following 9/11 Foster was the Rapporteur/draftsman for the Regulation which introduced minimum standards of security at airports across Europe. This included new rules which required airport staff to be security screened airside, when entering secure areas, as was the case in the United Kingdom. She supported moves to require airlines to compensate passengers 'bumped' off flights. Other areas she focused on included: *

Single European Sky The Single European Sky (SES) is a European Commission initiative that seeks to reform the European air traffic management system through a series of actions carried out in four different levels (institutional, operational, technological and contr ...

, ATM, GNSS, Galileo (new satellite systems); * The creation of the European Air Safety Agency (EASA); Occurrence reporting * Slots, Noise Ground-handling and Pax rights; * Crew operations and Open Skies agreements. She was also a member of the Sky & Space Parliamentary Intergroup. As a was a member of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Joint Parliamentary Assembly (ACP) she became the spokesman for the European Parliament on Zimbabwe, following which she was subsequently banned from entering the country. She was also a Member of the Animal Welfare Parliamentary Intergroup.

Defeat in 2004; re-election in 2009

Foster was re-selected as a candidate for the

2004 European Parliament election The 2004 European Parliament election was held between 10 and 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. The European Parliamental parties could not be voted for, but electe ...

in fourth position on the Conservative list, so was not re-elected when the Conservatives won only three seats. Having specialised in the aviation sector, she became an adviser to Airbus on EU legislation following which she was appointed Head of European Affairs for the Aerospace, Space and Defence Industries of Europe (ASD), based in Brussels (2005-2009). In 2009 she was placed third on the Conservative list for the North West in the

European Parliament election Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Unti ...

and was elected as an MEP, with the Conservatives winning three seats for a second time. She was, again, appointed as the Transport Spokesman and also served as a Vice President of the Sky & Space and Animal Welfare Parliamentary Intergroups and as a Member of the EU-US Delegation. In addition she sat as a member of the Environment Committee. She was elected Deputy Leader of the Conservative delegation of MEPs in 2013, and was re-elected annually until 2019. In 2013, she argued against the Conservative Party having an electoral pact with

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

2014 European election

Foster topped the ballot of the North West Candidates list for the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

. The Conservatives retained two MEPs - Foster and Sajjad Karim. Following the election she was re-appointed as a Transport Spokesman, specialising in the aviation and aerospace sectors as before and was also the Spokesman on Tourism. She was the draftsman of the groundbreaking 'Report on the Safe Use of RPAS' (drones) in the civil sector. She remained on the Environment Committee. She continued to work on aviation security issues with American authorities and other countries around the globe. She was re-elected as a Vice-President of both the Sky & Space and Animal Welfare Parliamentary Intergroups. She remained a Member of the EU/US Parliamentary Delegation and was elected Vice-President of the Australia/New Zealand Delegation with the focus on securing future trade deals. She was regularly invited to address aviation/aerospace conferences, such as the Royal Aeronautical Society (drones & emissions trading), as well as being regularly called upon by the media and other organisations for political comment on all aspects of both sectors. She is a member of the RAeS as well as the European Aviation Club. Foster did not contest the 2019 European Election and fully supports the UK position on Brexit. As an MEP Foster was also the Spokesman on Maritime Affairs and served as a Director and Board Member of Mersey Maritime Ltd. from 2016 to June 2019. (Unpaid) She was appointed President of the North West Conservative Clubs in 2010. Foster sits as a Senior Advisor on the Drone Delivery Group.(Unpaid) Foster was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(DBE) in the

2019 Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as ...

House of Lords

Foster was introduced in to the House of Lords on the 9th February 2021. She has spoken out on the devastating impact of Covid on the Aviation and Tourism and hospitality sectors and cover up by the Chinese Authorities on its source. In addition, she vehemently opposed the introduction of vaccine passports along with other restrictions such as keeping children out of school, lockdowns in general and mandatory vaccinations for Care and NHS workers. ansardShe is a Vice Chairman of the APPG Pandemic Group. She is also a Vice Chairman of the APPG on the future of Aviation along with the APPGs on Aerospace, Business Travel, General Aviation. She supports the

Rwanda asylum plan The Rwanda asylum plan (officially the UK and Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership, also known as the Rwanda asylum scheme, Rwanda plan and Rwanda deal) is an immigration policy first proposed by the British government, whereby ...

.https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2022-10-19/debates/EBEFCBED-C7CA-444B-9C31-2F18E60CAF44/details#contribution-BFED7D00-7D78-48CE-A827-E32518D57609

Media

Foster is a regular contributor on the UK TV channel, GB News

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Jacqueline Living people Conservative Party (UK) MEPs 20th-century women MEPs for England 21st-century women MEPs for England MEPs for England 1999–2004 MEPs for England 2009–2014 MEPs for England 2014–2019 Year of birth missing (living people) Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Conservative Party (UK) life peers Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Politicians from Liverpool