Michael Foster

Michael Adam Foster (born March 1958) is a British former talent agent and politician. He was Chris Evans' agent and has run several talent agencies. He was a Labour donor and Parliamentary candidate, but he left the party after a series of disputes with leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Early life Foster is Jewish; Foster has two brothers and a sister. Foster was agent for TV and radio presenter Chris Evans Foster was recruited by Waheed Alli, the managing director of Carlton Productions (part of Carlton Communications), to become managing director of content in August 1999. He left Carlton in February 2001. After Evans left Virgin Radio (which Foster co-owned) Foster also founded Artists Rights Group with Sue Latimer in May 2001, becoming the agent for Ross Kemp, Evans, and Evans' then wife Billie Piper. At ARG he was also the agent for Trinny and Susannah. Foster was No. 99 in The Guardian'''s media Top 100 in 2003 and No. 68 in 2011. All3Media bought ARG in March 2006 and Foster left in February 2008, buying out his part of ARG and founding his own talent agency MF Management. to form The Rights House, with Foster and Michel as the senior partners and Foster holding a controlling stake. PFD was headed by Matthew Freud, who had invested in MF Management. Among his clients at Rights House was Sacha Baron Cohen.

In 2013, Foster sold his stakes in his companies The Rights House and PFD He also previously had a stake in production company Carnival Films. It placed over 700 interns, but lost its government funding in December 2016. Creative Access continues successfully as a social enterprise. Foster also does work for the Wish Centre, a self-harm and violence charity for young people in Harrow and Merton.

He was selected in January 2014 to be the Labour candidate for Camborne and Redruth at the 2015 general election, on a platform of creating jobs in Cornwall. He donated over £100,000 to his local party during the campaign. His election agent was Jude Robinson. Ross Kemp, After being selected, Foster tossed his phone across a table during the filming of Sunday Politics, hitting Conservative MP Sheryll Murray in the wrist; he apologised and said it was not deliberate. His Mebyon Kernow opponent Loveday Jenkin accused Foster of threatening her at a hustings, which he said was untrue. He sued in July 2016 to try to stop Corbyn being on the ballot in the 2016 leadership election after Labour's NEC ruled that, as the incumbent, Corbyn did not need to be nominated to be a candidate; however, Mr Justice Sir David Foskett, a High Court judge, ruled that Corbyn could stand; Corbyn called the case a "waste of time and resources". Foster was suspended from Labour in September 2016 after he called supporters of Corbyn "Sturm Abteilung (stormtroopers)" in an article in the Mail on Sunday. After he left the party, Foster said in The Sunday Times he would stand against Corbyn if Labour did poorly in the May local elections and Corbyn did not resign. He subsequently stood against Corbyn in the June 2017 general election in Islington North, with the slogan "Labour for the Common Good". He obtained 0.4% of the vote, while Corbyn was re-elected with a greatly increased majority and 73% of the vote. A few days after the election, Foster wrote that he had been wrong about Corbyn's leadership.

Personal life Foster moved to Cornwall in around 2005 He has four daughters. Haaretz reported "He is known for his fiery temper and angry outbursts."