George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock

The Right Honourable The Lord Foulkes of Cumnock PC
Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothians
In office 3 May 2007 – 22 March 2011
Member of the House of Lords
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 May 2005
Member of Parliament for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley South Ayrshire (1979–1983)
In office 4 May 1979 – 11 April 2005
Preceded by	Jim Sillars
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	(1942-01-21) 21 January 1942 Oswestry, Shropshire
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour Co-operative
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Keen supporter of Heart of Midlothian Football Club

George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock PC (born 21 January 1942 in Oswestry, Shropshire) is a British Labour Co-operative life peer. He has been a member of the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament and as a life peer is now a member of the House of Lords. Until May 2011 he was a member of both the Lords and the Scottish Parliament but he did not seek reelection to the Scottish Parliament in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.^[1] He is often described by the media as an "ultra loyalist" to the Labour Party.^[2] In 1993, he was forced to resign as Shadow Defence Minister after being convicted of being drunk and disorderly during an incident in which he struck a police officer.^[3]

Early life

George Foulkes spent his early childhood in Keith, Banffshire. He later attended the independent, fee-paying The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hertfordshire. His political career began in 1963, when he became Senior President of the Students' Representative Council at the University of Edinburgh. He later became the full-time President of the Scottish Union of Students (which was later incorporated into the UK National Union of Students). He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.^[4]

House of Commons

Before gaining election, Foulkes unsuccessfully contested Edinburgh West in 1970, being beaten by the Conservative Anthony Stodart. In October 1974 he stood for Edinburgh Pentlands, but was beaten by Malcolm Rifkind.

Foulkes was first elected in the 1979 general election, as Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament 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, a he 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 votes to 94 votes.^[5][6]

As an MP, Foulkes introduced the first-ever proposals for a smoking ban in public places in 1982 and legislation against age discrimination in 1985, both through private member's bills.

After serving on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and the Council of Europe, he was appointed to the Opposition Front Bench as an opposition spokesperson on Foreign Affairs from 1983–92, then for Defence from 1992–93. He then served as Joan Lestor's deputy at International Development from 1994–1997.^[7]

When Labour won the election in 1997 he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for International Development, where he was Clare Short's deputy. From February 2001 he was Minister of State for Scotland until the May 2002 reshuffle. From June 2003 to May 2005 he was a UK delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Assembly of the Western European Union. Foulkes was made a member of the Privy Council in 2002, and stepped down from office at the 2005 general election.

Foulkes was a strong supporter of ID cards, regularly speaking in favour of former British Government proposals.^[8] He is also a supporter of Scottish devolution and was involved in the drafting of "A Claim of Right for Scotland" in 1988.

He is a strong supporter of the Iraq war and has described Tony Blair's conduct of the war as clearly intentioned, carried through brilliantly and resulting in much improvement for the people of the country. Commenting on Sir Christopher Meyer's testimony to the Iraq Inquiry in 2009, he described the inquiry as "a procession of primadonnas and the usual suspects grandstanding for the TV".^[9]

House of Lords

On 13 May 2005, it was announced that Foulkes was to receive a life peerage. On 16 June 2005 he was created Baron Foulkes of Cumnock, of Cumnock in East Ayrshire.^[10]

He serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Interparliamentary Union and Member of the Board of Governors of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. He was a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee in the Cabinet Office from 2007 to May 2010 and has been a Member of the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy since October 2010.

He was one of the fifty signatories to letter published in the Guardian in 2010, which called for Pope Benedict XVI 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.

Lord Foulkes has also been a member of the Lords E.U. Select Committee and member of the Lords E.U. Sub Committee on Social Policy and Consumer Protection since March 2011.

Lord Foulkes is very active on Caribbean matters. He serves as President of the Caribbean Britain Business Council, Chair of the Dominican Republic All-Party Parliamentary Group, Chair of the Belize All-Party Parliamentary Group, Vice Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago All-Party Parliamentary Group and Vice Chair of the British – Central America All-Party Parliamentary Group. In April 2011 Lord Foulkes became President of the Caribbean Council.

Scottish Parliament

Foulkes returned to electoral politics in 2007 when he led the Scottish Labour Party's Lothian List in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, and was vice-chairman of Labour's Holyrood election campaign. Lord Foulkes was elected as a Member of the Scottish Parliament on 3 May 2007.

After his election to the Scottish Parliament Foulkes was responsible for Labour's opposition to the minority SNP Government. For that he was a regular target of criticism by SNP bloggers, whom he branded "Cybernats". He regularly tabled Parliamentary Questions scrutinising the Scottish Government's conduct, and supposedly exposed several "irregularities", including the entertaining of wealthy SNP backers at Bute House at the expense of the taxpayer,^[11] and the preferential treatment given to Stagecoach, whose co-founder Brian Souter gave £500,000 to the SNP, in the Forth hovercraft project.^[12]

Foulkes has also been part of a campaign for presumed consent on organ donation.^[13][14]

He 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.^[15]

Controversies

Foulkes was chairman of Hearts football club from April 2004 until his resignation on 31 October 2005. Foulkes resigned in protest at the majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov deciding to dismiss the Hearts chief executive Phil Anderton.^[16]

Foulkes attracted controversy after referring to the Scottish National Party (SNP) of acting in a "xenophobic way".^[17] The former Scottish Labour Party leader Henry McLeish called on Foulkes to apologise for the SNP 'racism' claim.^[18]

During the 2009 expenses controversy, Foulkes attacked media presenters, saying they were all paid "to come on TV and sneer at democracy and undermine democracy. The vast majority of MPs are being undermined by you"^[19] in an exchange with BBC presenter Carrie Gracie.

In 2008, Foulkes had been criticised for his expenses claims, which included around £45,000 over a period of two years for overnight subsistence to stay in a flat he had inherited. Between April 2007 and March 2008, Foulkes claimed £54,527 in expenses from the House of Lords.^[2][20] In January 2009 Foulkes was shown to have one of the lowest expenses claims in the Scottish Parliament.^[21]

In 1993, he resigned as Shadow Defence Minister after being convicted of being drunk and disorderly during in incident in which he struck a Police officer.^[3]

He has also made Freedom of Information requests about the expenses of General Sir Richard Dannatt, lately head of the British Army.^[22]

On 15 September 2010, Foulkes, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.^[23]

On 24 August 2011 The Scotsman^[24] reported that George Foulkes had announced that 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, George Foulkes tabled a motion at the House of Lords calling for the independence referendum to contain no extra question on increased devolution, and proposing a separate referendum be held on the subject in the event independence is rejected and Scotland stays in the UK.^[25]

Foulkes attempted to block the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016, by tabling 41 amendments. The People's Pledge co-founder Stuart Coster said:

"Lord Foulkes may have the privilege but he does not have the authority to stand in the way of MPs when they simply wish to consult the people on an issue like this of national debate and importance. If this unelected peer and a small number of his party colleagues succeed in blocking the chance this Bill presents of an EU referendum actually being delivered, he will do immense damage to the standing of the House of Lords. We urge Lord Foulkes and his party colleagues to withdraw their clearly malicious amendments."^[26]

When the public voted to leave the EU, Foulkes called for parliament to ignore the result.^[27]

Styles of address

• 1942–1979: Mr George Foulkes
• 1979–2002: Mr George Foulkes MP
• 2002–2005: The Right Honourable George Foulkes MP
• 2005: The Right Honourable George Foulkes
• 2005–2007: The Right Honourable The Lord Foulkes of Cumnock PC
• 2007–2011: The Right Honourable The Lord Foulkes of Cumnock PC MSP
• 2011-: The Right Honourable The Lord Foulkes of Cumnock PC

References

External links

• Parliamentary Bio