Don Foster (politician)

The Right Honourable The Lord Foster of Bath PC


Liberal Democrat Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Spokesperson
Incumbent
Assumed office October 2016
Leader	Tim Farron
Preceded by	Lorely Burt
Government Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Commons
In office 7 October 2013 – 11 May 2015
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Chief Whip	Baron Young of Cookham Michael Gove
Preceded by	Alistair Carmichael
Succeeded by	Anne Milton
Comptroller of the Household
In office 7 October 2013 – 11 May 2015
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Alistair Carmichael
Succeeded by	Gavin Barwell
Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
In office 4 September 2012 – 7 October 2013
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Andrew Stunell
Succeeded by	Stephen Williams
Member of Parliament for Bath
In office 9 April 1992 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	Chris Patten
Succeeded by	Ben Howlett
Personal details
Born	(1947-03-31) 31 March 1947 (age 70) Preston, Lancashire, UK
Political party	Liberal Democrats
Alma mater	University of Keele University of Bath

Donald Michael Ellison Foster, Baron Foster of Bath, PC (born 31 March 1947) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who represented Bath, Somerset as its constituency MP from 1992 until 2015.

From October 2013 to May 2015 he held the ex officio title of Comptroller of the Household as Liberal Democrat Chief Whip. He was created Baron Foster of Bath, of Bath in the County of Somerset in the 2015 Dissolution Honours, becoming a member of the House of Lords.

Foster was born in Preston, Lancashire, and attended the Lancaster Royal Grammar School before Keele University where he was awarded a BSc degree in Physics and Psychology in 1969, and also received the CertEd that same year. He later received an MEd in Education at the University of Bath in 1981.

He was a science teacher at Sevenoaks School in Kent in 1969, before appointment as Avon Education Authority's Science Project Director in 1975 and as a Lecturer in Education at Bristol University in 1980, before being engaged as a management consultant with Pannell Kerr Forster from 1989 until his election to the House of Commons.