If Volodymyr Zelensky wants a sympathetic ear as he tries to find a path to peace, he could do worse than turning to Baroness Foster, a woman who has spent much of her life in the toughest of negotiations.
The former first minister of Northern Ireland, like the Ukrainian president, knows what it is like to enter talks with sworn enemies, suppressing personal feelings of revulsion for the benefit of present and future generations. This is a woman whose school bus was bombed by the IRA, and whose father survived being shot at their home by terrorists, yet she attended the funeral of Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander who lionised her father’s would-be killer.
She is full of admiration for the way Zelensky has conducted himself, and in recent media appearances she has preferred to offer reassurance, rather than advice, when asked what she would do in his situation. “Compromising isn’t weakness,” she says, “and I think he has shown that. In fact, it might lead to a position which is more beneficial for you.
“There’s always going to be a compromise, which is always very difficult for your supporters, because they want you to get 100 per cent, but in Northern Ireland if you get 80 per cent you’ve done really well and if you get 40 per cent you haven’t done so well but at least you’ve got something. And I think that’s probably going to be the same for Zelensky.”
We meet in the tea room of the House of Lords, sitting next to a window with a magnificent view of the Thames. Foster, in a stylish printed dress, sips a glass of sparkling water as she enthuses about her new life as a working peer (she was created Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee in 2022).
Having never been an MP, the 54-year-old is clearly enjoying the novelty of life in Westminster, where she typically spends three days each week, away from her family home near the border town of Enniskillen. “I’m really enjoying this stage of my life,” she says, “because, whilst I love being here and participating in more politics at a UK level, I’m also enjoying the fact that I have more space for my family.
“My mum’s 91, still very much with us, thankfully, so I can enjoy her. My children are now 18, 22 and 24 and, God love them, have grown up with Mum being in the public eye, so it’s nice for them that it’s not so much like that now. And my poor beleaguered husband as well!”
Home life is something Foster wasn’t often asked about when she was in the depths of negotiations over Brexit, or power sharing in Stormont, or internal divisions in the DUP. She rather resents the fact that the public think politicians should not be entitled to any sort of work-life balance. “I see people making comments about Kemi Badenoch,” she says, “and I say to myself, ‘Yeah, but Kemi has kids, and she needs to balance that’. And that’s really important, because, if you can manage childcare, birthday parties, what’s happening at school, medical appointments, and then hold down the other job as well, you can do anything. You have to be incredibly organised.”