Michael Jabez Foster

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For other people with similar names, see Michael Foster; in particular Michael John Foster, MP for Worcester

Michael Jabez Foster (born February 26, 1946) British politician He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Hastings and Rye

Michael Foster was born in Hastings, East Sussex and attended the local Hastings Secondary School for Boys and the Hastings Grammar School before attending the University of Leicester where he received a Master of Laws degree. From 1963 to 1972 he worked as a litigation clerk. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1980 and worked as a partner of Fynmores Solicitors in Bexhill-on-Sea specialising in employment law until 1998.

He was elected as a councillor to the Hastings Borough Council in 1970, becoming the Labour group leader for a year in 1973, serving on the council until 1977, he was again elected to the Borough Council 1981-1985. He received a dual mandate in 1974 when he was also elected as a councillor to the East Sussex County Council, becoming the deputy Labour group leader 1984-1992, he stood down from the county council in 1997.

He unsuccessfully contested Hastings at both the February and October 1974 general elections and again at the 1979 General Election, and on each occasion was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Kenneth Warren. He won the redrawn seat of Hastings and Rye at the 1997 General Election when he became the second least expected Labour MP in the landslide. He defeated the new sitting Conservative MP Jacqui Lait by 2,560 votes and has remained the MP since. He made his maiden speech on November 21, 1997.[1]

In parliament he was a member of the social security select committee in 1998 until he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Attorney General Gareth Williams in 1999 and his successor Peter Goldsmith until the 2005 General Election. Since 2005 he has been a member of the work and pensions and standards and privileges select committees.

Michael Foster has been married to Rosemary Kemp since 1969 and the have two sons and four grandchildren. He is interested in tennis and is secretary of the All Party Tennis Group in parliament. He is a member of the Christian Socialists and the Society of Labour Lawyers. Other interests include pensioners rights, child poverty and animal welfare. He has been a Deputy Lieutenant for East Sussex since 1993.