Historica Wiki
Advertisement


Bennie Foster (25 March 1978-) was a British UKIP politician who served on the Bromland Town Council from 2 July 2017, succeeding Adhip Kotak.

Biography[]

Bennie Foster was born in Bromland, Lincolnshire, England on 25 March 1978, and he was raised in a working-class English family. Foster came from a family of Labour supporters, and he sympathized with Labour for much of his early life. However, Foster developed a sense of societal alienation and hostility to South Asian immigration while working as a delivery driver, believing that immigration was the cause of his poor socioeconomic circumstances and the concurrent decline of Bromland's industry. In 2010, Foster switched his party affiliation to UKIP, and he attended anti-immigration rallies and participated in the 2017 anti-Asian protests held by Albie Ellis ahead of the 2017 Town Council election. Foster stood for election against Labour incumbent Adhip Kotak, and Foster appealed to the racial fears of several white working-class Labour voters to win support for his campaign, while many South Asian voters were intimidated into staying home out of fear that the UKIP protests might turn violent. As a result, Foster was elected to the Town Council on 2 July 2017. On 24 June 2018, the charismatic Foster succeeded Ellis as head of Bromland's UKIP chapter after Ellis' sudden resignation. He led the party in surpassing Labour to become the second-largest party on the town council, but he lost the 5 August 2018 mayoral election to Conservative incumbent Arabella Marsh by a margin of 65.8% to 34.2%.

Advertisement