Dawn Foster

Dawn Hayley Foster (12 September 1986 – 9 July 2021) was an Irish-British journalist, broadcaster, and author writing predominantly on social affairs, politics, economics and women's rights.

Foster held staff writer positions at Inside Housing, The Guardian, and Jacobin magazine, and contributed to other journals such as The Independent, The New York Times, Tribune, and Dissent.

She regularly appeared as a political commentator on television and was known for her coverage of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Foster was born in and grew up in Newport, South Wales.

She also had a background in Belfast and held dual British and Irish citizenship.

In articles for Child Poverty Action Group and The Guardian, she wrote that she grew up in poverty in an unemployed family.

The success of Foster's blog on the harassment of female cyclists led to her first commission at The Guardian in 2010.

In 2011, Foster was appointed as a moderator on The Guardian Comment is Free website and became a regular contributor to its opinion section.

Foster's career at The Guardian continued with regular columns including Foster on Friday for the Housing Network, opinion columns, and her work for The Guardian's Society desk.

Her work at The Guardian predominantly covered social affairs, politics, economics and women's rights.

After working on The Guardian's comment moderation desk and writing opinion, Foster worked as deputy features editor at Inside Housing from 2014 to 2015.

Her work there includes reports into hoarding, interviews with social geographer Danny Dorling and Welsh politician Tanni Grey-Thompson, and investigations into how periods impact homeless women.

Inside Housing colleagues described Foster as "brave and bold" and a "brilliant journalist."

It was during Foster's role at Inside Housing that International Building Press organisation named her 2014's IBP new journalist of the year.

In 2015, the London Review of Books' cover story for its 7 May issue was an article written by Foster criticising the free school movement.

In it, Foster wrote: "There is no requirement that free school founders have experience of running a school, and no assessment is made as to whether the prospective founders will be able to meet the legally required standards of school governance."

The article drew criticism from free schools advocate and journalist Toby Young.

In a letter to the London Review of Books, Young took issue with Foster's interpretation of free schools data and made claims that were challenged by the author Michael Rosen, journalist Melissa Benn, and education researcher Janet Downs in further letters written to the publication.

Foster responded to Young in the London Review of Books' Letters refuting Young's criticism and wrote:"Creaming off the children of more affluent parents constitutes social segregation; so too does the existence of religious free schools.

Young seems to think he is held in high regard by free school advocates.

When I mentioned his name in the course of interviewing a former Department for Education employee for the piece, my interviewee headbutted the restaurant table in exasperation.

I have found the sentiment, if not the gesture, to be common among his ideological comrades."

On the night of the Grenfell Tower fire, "[Foster] headed over to do what she could as Grenfell Tower was engulfed in flames, and went on to unearth a blog post written by former residents of the tower warning that the recent refurbishment could cause a 'serious fire'."

Her coverage of the fire included an opinion piece in The New York Times, in which she wrote the following:"'the level of public anger right now since the Grenfell disaster is forcing people here to confront the issues of class and race, gentrification and public policy that, it is now clear, can be deadly.'"On the day of the fire, Jacobin magazine published an article by Foster on the fire.

She called the tragedy an "atrocity" that "was explicitly political" and "a symbol of the United Kingdom's deep inequality".

A tribute to Foster by the writer Juliet Jacques wrote that Foster, "reported on [the Grenfell Tower fire] relentlessly, criticising the way the building's management company and the local council had ignored the residents' concerns".

One year on from the Grenfell fire, Foster discussed the political aftermath and the survivors' struggle for justice with writer and editor James Butler on Novara Media.

In 2017, Foster detailed early experiences of hunger and sleeping rough for the Food Memory Bank project.

She attended Caerleon Comprehensive School and Bassaleg High School before going on to study English literature at the University of Warwick.

Before going into journalism, Foster worked in politics and higher education.

Foster held staff writer positions at Inside Housing, The Guardian, and Jacobin magazine.

She was co-editor of openDemocracy 50:50 and wrote for numerous publications including The New York Times, Tribune, and the London Review of Books.

Whilst attending the 2018 Conservative party conference, Foster uncovered an oversight in the event's mobile app that allowed any user to access personal details and phone numbers of attendees including Boris Johnson and senior members of Theresa May's cabinet.

The story went viral online and resulted in an apology and investigation from the Information Commissioner.

Her tenure at The Guardian came to an end in mid-2019 after she wrote an opinion piece criticising then deputy leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson and suggesting he should quit.

In 2019, the Conservative Member of Parliament, Suella Braverman, said in a pro-Brexit speech for the Bruges Group (a Eurosceptic think tank): "We are engaged in a war against cultural Marxism" and warned about free speech at universities in the UK.

Journalists present at the event included Foster who challenged Braverman's use of the term 'cultural Marxism' highlighting its anti-Semitic history and its connection to the manifesto of mass murderer Anders Breivik.

Braverman responded, "Yes, I do believe that we are in a fight against cultural Marxism. We have a culture evolving from the far left which is about snuffing out freedom of speech."

Braverman's usage of the conspiracy theory was condemned as hate speech by other MPs, and the anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate.

Foster wrote numerous articles against transphobia in British media and was one of more than 200 feminists who signed a letter to The Guardian in 2020 rejecting the argument that transgender rights are a threat to women.