The subject of this article is standing for re-election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 4 July, and will not be an incumbent MP once Parliament is dissolved on 30 May. Some parts of this article may be out of date during that period. |
Sarah Owen | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
陳美麗 [1] [2] | |||||||||||
Member of Parliament for Luton North | |||||||||||
Assumed office 12 December 2019 | |||||||||||
Preceded by | Kelvin Hopkins | ||||||||||
Majority | 9,247 (21.7%) | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||
Born | Hastings,East Sussex,England | 11 January 1983||||||||||
Political party | Labour | ||||||||||
Alma mater | University of Sussex | ||||||||||
Signature | |||||||||||
Website | sarahowen | ||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 陳 美 麗 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 陈 美 丽 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Sarah Mei Li Owen [3] (Chinese :陳美麗; pinyin :Chén Měilì; Wade–Giles :Chen Mei-li; [1] [2] born 11 January 1983) [4] [5] is a British politician and trade unionist serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton North since 2019. [6] A member of the Labour Party,Owen is the first MP of South East Asian descent and the first female MP of Chinese descent. [7]
She served as Shadow Minister for Local Government and Faith from October 2022 to November 2023,having previously served as Shadow Minister for Homelessness,Rough Sleeping and Faith shadowing the same shadow department between December 2021 and October 2022.
Owen was born and raised in Hastings. Her mother's family is of Malaysian Chinese ancestry, [8] [9] described as "Malaysian and a mix of Singaporean and Nonya" with Chinese great-grandparents. [10] Owen graduated from the University of Sussex. [11]
Owen worked in the public sector as a care worker for the NHS,a political assistant for Brighton and Hove City Council and a London Fire Brigade employee in the emergency planning department. [6] [12] [13] Owen has been a political adviser to Alan Sugar and has worked on Labour's national small business policy. [12]
In 2011,Owen was chosen as the Labour Party candidate for Hastings and Rye to contest the next general election. [6] At the 2015 general election,Owen finished in second place with 17,890 votes,which was 4,796 votes behind the elected Conservative candidate Amber Rudd. [14] [15]
Owen was formerly a political officer for the trade union GMB and has been a member of Labour's National Executive Committee. [13] She is chair of East and South East Asians for Labour. [16]
In the 2019 general election,Owen was chosen by a panel drawn from Labour's National Executive Committee as the party's candidate for Luton North,rather than by the local membership,causing protests from some of them who felt that GMB had forced the candidate on them. [13] Owen was elected with a vote tally of 23,496,which was a majority of 9,247 votes over the Conservative Party candidate. [17]
On her election,Owen was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Lisa Nandy. [18] On 15 October 2020,Owen resigned as her position as PPS to vote against the proposed Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill,disagreeing with the Labour Whip to abstain. [19]
On 14 April 2021,Owen announced that she was named Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rachel Reeves and was also appointed a whip. [20] [21]
In December 2021,she was appointed Shadow Minister for Homelessness,Rough Sleeping and Faith. [22] On 28 October 2022,she was appointed Shadow Minister for Local Government,replacing Mike Amesbury who resigned from his post earlier in the year. Her previous portfolio of Faith was retained,and was replaced as Shadow Minister for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping by Paula Barker.
In 2022,she criticised Tory MP Mark Francois for using a "crass racial slur" in the House of Commons,after he had made a speech referring to "Japs". [23]
In November 2023,she resigned from the frontbench in support of calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. [24]
Owen gave birth to a daughter in February 2020. [25] [26] She has previously experienced miscarriages,a topic she spoke about through her union's newsletter for baby loss awareness. [27]
Dawn Petula Butler is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent Central since 2015.
Kerry Gillian McCarthy is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol East since 2005. A member of the Labour Party,she is the Shadow Minister for Climate Change. She was Shadow Secretary of State for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs from 2015 to 2016.
Barbara Mary Keeley is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Worsley and Eccles South,previously Worsley,from 2005 to 2024.
Gavin Shuker is a British former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South from 2010 to 2019. Shuker was a Labour Party MP before defecting to form Change UK. He then left Change UK to become an Independent politician and was defeated at the 2019 election,coming third with 9.3% of the vote.
Lisa Eva Nandy is a British Labour Party politician serving as Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development in 2023. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010. Nandy previously served as Shadow Foreign Secretary,Shadow Levelling Up Secretary and Shadow Energy Secretary.
Katherine Anne Green OBE JP is a British politician serving as Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Policing and Crime since 2023. She previously served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stretford and Urmston between 2010 and 2022. A member of the Labour Party,she served as Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities from 2015 to 2016,Chair of the Committees on Privileges and Standards from 2018 to 2020,and Shadow Secretary of State for Education from 2020 to 2021.
Alison McGovern is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wirral South since 2010. A member of the Labour Party,she was a member of Southwark Council from 2006 to 2010.
Emma Elizabeth Reynolds is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton North East from 2010 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party,she attended the shadow cabinets of Miliband and Harman from 2013 to 2015.
Jennifer Chapman,Baroness Chapman of Darlington is a British politician serving as a Member of the House of Lords since 2021. A member of the Labour Party,she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 2010 to 2019.
Sarah Deborah Champion is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rotherham since 2012.
Elizabeth Anne McInnes is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood and Middleton from 2014 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party,she was a Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2016 to 2019 and Communities and Local Government from 2015 to 2016.
Catherine Malloy Hollern is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn since 2015. She served as Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council from 2004 to 2007 and 2010 to 2015.
Matthew Thomas Pennycook is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich since 2015. A member of the Labour Party,he has been Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning since 2021.
Holly Lynch,also known as Holly Walker-Lynch,is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Halifax from 2015 to 2024.
Christina Rees is a Welsh politician who served as Member of Parliament for Neath from 2015 to 2024. She is a member of the Labour and Co-operative parties.
Rosena Chantelle Allin-Khan is a British politician and medical doctor serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting since 2016. A member of the Labour Party,she attended shadow cabinet as Shadow Minister for Mental Health from 2020 to 2023.
Eleanor Claire Reeves is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham West and Penge since 2017. A member of the Labour Party,she has served as Labour Party Deputy National Campaign Coordinator since 2023. She previously served as Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales from April 2020 to December 2021 and Shadow Minister for Prisons and Probation from 2021 to 2023.
Mary Elizabeth Twist is a British Labour Party politician. She has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blaydon since the 2017 general election. Before her parliamentary career,she was the head of health in the North-East for the trade union,UNISON,and a local councillor.
Stephanie Louise Peacock is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley East since 2017. A member of the Labour Party,she was a trade union official prior to her election to Parliament. She has served as Shadow Minister for Sport,Gambling and Media since 2023.
Rachel Louise Hopkins is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South since 2019. A member of the Labour Party,she was a Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2021 to 2023.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Media related to Sarah Owen at Wikimedia Commons