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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland

British politician (1937-2019)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ1200029 ↗
Source-derived summary

Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland, (25 June 1937 – 5 January 2019) was a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland, in County Durham, from 1979 to 2005.

Political career

Foster was first elected to represent Bishop Auckland at the 1979 general election, and held this seat until his retirement in 2005. He served as opposition Chief Whip between 1985 and 1995, becoming a member of the Privy Council in 1993. After Tony Blair became leader in 1994, he was keen to appoint a new Chief Whip and asked Foster to stand aside, in return for the promise of a seat in the Cabinet if and when Labour returned to power. Foster eventually agreed and became Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1995.

However, when Labour won the 1997 election, Foster was appointed to the relatively junior role of Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office, under David Clark. After giving the matter further thought, Foster stood down from the government after just two days, and later publicly accused Mr Blair of having broken his promise to him. He was eventually appointed chair of the Commons sub-committee on employment, becoming something of a thorn in the Government's side during Mr Blair's first term. However, the employment sub-committee was abolished in 2001 and he became a backbencher, retiring from the Commons at the 2005 general election.

He was appointed as a deputy lieutenant of County Durham in 2001, giving him the post-nominal letters "DL" for life.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland” is british politician (1937-2019). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Derek, Foster and Baron, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1937, 2019, 1979, 2005—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1937-06-25. For this dossier, Derek, Foster and Baron is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british politician (1937-2019)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1200029. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1937, 2019, 1979 and 2005.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland primary sources, Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland archive and Derek research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.