Politician and football enthusiast. Although born is Oswestry (England), Foulkes spent much of the first ten years of his life in Keith (Moray). He was educated at Keith Grammar School and the Haberdashers Aske's School (Elstree, England), before attending the University of Edinburgh, where he became involved in student politics.
After almost 10 years in local government in Edinburgh, Foulkes entered Parliament as the Labour member for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley in 1979. He served as Opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs (1983-92), on Defence (1992-93) and on Overseas Development (1994-97) before becoming a junior minister at the Department for International Development in the Blair administration (1997 - 2001). He went on to serve briefly as Minister of Education and Industry at the Scottish office (2001) and Minister of State at the Scottish Office (2001-02). Foulkes stepped down from Parliament in 2005 and shortly afterwards was elevated to a peerage as Lord Foulkes of Cumnock.
In 2005, after a successful 18 months at the helm, Foulkes spectacularly resigned as Chairman of Edinburgh's Heart of Midlothian Football Club after disagreements with the team's owner, Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov.
