Arlene Foster

Arlene Isobel Foster, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (née Kelly; born 17 July 1970), is a British broadcaster and politician from Northern Ireland who is serving as Chair of Intertrade UK since September 2024. She previously served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2017 and 2020 to 2021 and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2015 to 2021. Foster was the first woman to hold either position. She is a Member of the House of Lords, having previously been a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 2003 to 2021.

Foster served in the Northern Ireland Executive as Minister of the Environment from 2007 to 2008, Minister for Enterprise and Investment from 2008 to 2015 and Minister for Finance and Personnel from 2015 to 2016. In December 2015, Foster was elected unopposed to succeed Peter Robinson as leader of the DUP. In January 2016, Foster became First Minister of Northern Ireland and shared power with Martin McGuinness.

McGuinness resigned as deputy First Minister in January 2017 amid the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal, which involved a green energy scheme that Foster set up during her time as Minister for Enterprise and Investment. The scheme was set to cost the taxpayer £490 million and there were allegations of corruption surrounding Foster's role in implementing the scheme. McGuinness asked Foster to step aside as First Minister while her involvement in the scheme was investigated, but she refused to step aside or resign and said that the voices calling for her resignation were those of "misogynists and male chauvinists". Under the terms of the Northern Ireland power-sharing agreement, the First and deputy First Ministers are equal and, therefore, Foster could not remain in her post as First Minister and was subsequently removed from office. McGuinness's resignation caused a 2017 snap assembly election to be held, in which the DUP lost 10 seats. After no party received an outright majority in the 2017 general election, the DUP entered into an agreement with the Conservative Party to support Prime Minister Theresa May's government. In January 2020, she became First Minister of Northern Ireland again after the executive was reinstated under the terms of the New Decade, New Approach agreement.

On 28 April 2021, after more than 20 DUP MLAs and four DUP MPs signed a letter "...voicing no confidence in her leadership", Foster announced that she would resign as party leader and as First Minister. She was succeeded by Edwin Poots as DUP leader on 28 May 2021. Foster left office as First Minister on 14 June 2021 and was succeeded by Paul Givan as First Minister on 17 June 2021. She resigned from the Northern Ireland Assembly in October 2021 and became a presenter on GB News.

In May 2024, it was confirmed that Foster would be appointed chairperson of Intertrade UK, a new body to promote trade within the UK which was announced as part of the UK government package to restore devolution. She assumed the role on 19 September 2024.

Arlene Kelly was born in Enniskillen and was raised in the townland of Dernawilt, on the outskirts of Aghadrumsee. When she was aged nine, her family moved to live in the Castlebalfour Estate, a housing estate in nearby Lisnaskea, after an IRA attack on the family home at Dernawilt. She is a member of the Church of Ireland. Her experience with the Troubles began early in her life when a night-time attempt was made to kill her father, a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) reservist, who was shot and severely injured at their family farm; the family was forced to leave the Roslea area, moving to Lisnaskea instead.

As a teenager, Foster was on a school bus that was bombed by the IRA, the vehicle targeted because its driver was a soldier in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). A girl sitting near her was seriously injured. She was a pupil at Enniskillen Collegiate Grammar School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, from 1982 to 1989, and attended Queen's University Belfast (QUB), where she graduated with an LLB degree. Her political career began at Queen's University Belfast when she joined the Queen's Unionist Association, part of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). She served as the association's chair from 1992 to 1993. At the 1991 annual conference of the UUP's youth wing, the Ulster Young Unionist Council (UYUC), during abortive talks between the constitutional political parties in Northern Ireland initiated by Secretary of State Peter Brooke, she seconded a motion opposing devolved government in Northern Ireland, instead calling for the province to be more closely integrated with the rest of the United Kingdom. The motion carried. Following the 1993 local elections in Northern Ireland, she wrote a letter to Ulster Review, the current affairs magazine of the UYUC, expressing opposition to power-sharing arrangements with the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) on local councils where unionists had a majority, arguing that because the SDLP were a nationalist party who wanted to the see the "demise" of Northern Ireland who had "no desire to be full citizens of the United Kingdom" they "should therefore be denied the perks of this citizenship". Having been born on the island of Ireland, Foster herself automatically qualifies for Irish citizenship.

After leaving Queen's University she remained active in the UUP, chairing its youth wing, the UYUC, in 1995. In 1996, she became an Honorary Secretary of the UUP's ruling body, the Ulster Unionist Council, a position which she held until her resignation from the UUP on 18 December 2003. She was a councillor on Fermanagh District Council representing Enniskillen from 2005 to 2010.