The Baroness Foster of Oxton | |
|---|---|
 Official Portrait, 2021 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 29 January 2021 Life peerage | |
| Deputy Leader of the Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament | |
| In office 20 November 2013 – 1 July 2019 | |
| Member of the European Parliament for North West England | |
| In office 4 June 2009 – 1 July 2019[1][2] | |
| Preceded by | David Sumberg |
| Succeeded by | Chris Davies |
| In office 10 June 1999 – 10 June 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Sajjad Karim |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jacqueline Renshaw Liverpool, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Other political affiliations | Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe |
| Awards |  Life peer |
Jacqueline Foster, Baroness Foster of Oxton, DBE (née Renshaw) is a British Conservative politician and a former Member of the European Parliament for the North West England region.
In October 2019 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In January 2021, she was elevated to the Lords as Baroness Foster of Oxton, of Oxton in the County of Merseyside.[3][4]
Jacqueline Foster was born in Liverpool and educated at Prescot Girls' Grammar School.
She worked for British Airways for more than 20 years. Before joining she worked in France and Spain in the tourism sector. She speaks French and German.
Between 1981 and '85 she left British Airways and became Area Manager in Austria for Horizon, a British Tour Operator before returning to British Airways four years later. In 1989, she was one of the founder members of Cabin Crew '89, an independent trade union and served as the Deputy General Secretary. She continued with British Airways until she was elected as an MEP in 1999.
Foster combined her trade union activities with membership of the Conservative Party, serving as Vice Chairman of Twickenham Conservative Association as well as holding a variety of voluntary political offices for the Greater London area.
At the 1992 general election, she was the Conservative candidate in Newham South, a Labour-held seat in east London. In August 1996 she was selected for the marginal seat of Peterborough (where sitting Conservative MP Brian Mawhinney was moving to an adjacent constituency) and finished second behind Labour in the general election of 1997.
At the 1999 European Parliament election, Foster was selected by Conservatives in the North West as fifth on their list. 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 (specialising in the Aviation Industry) Following 9/11 she was the Rapporteur on the ground breaking Regulation which introduced ‘Minimum Standards of Security in Airports across Europe. She was also a Member of the Trade and Industry Committee.
She was a member of the Sky & Space Parliamentary Intergroup and also a Member of the Animal Welfare Parliamentary Intergroup.
In 2009 she was placed third on the Conservative list for the North West in the European Parliament election and was elected as an MEP, with the Conservatives winning three seats for a second time.[5] 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.[6]
Following the 2014 European election she was re-appointed as a Transport Spokesman and also the Spokesman on Tourism. She was the draftsman of the groundbreaking 'Report on the Safe Use of RPAS' (drones) in the civil sector.[7] She remained on the Environment Committee. 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.
2004-2009 Foster was not re-elected in the 2004 European election. She worked as a Consultant for Airbus before becoming the Head of European Affairs for ASD (Aerospace Space & Defence Industries of Europe) based in Brussels, before contesting the 2009 European election when she was again, elected as an MEP for the North West.
Since 2019 Foster has remained as a Senior Advisor on the Drone Delivery Group.[8]
Foster was appointed Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours, she was appointed to the House of Lords on 29 January 2021 and introduced on 9 February 2021.[9]