Sarah Owen

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Sarah Owen
MP
陳美麗[1][2]
Official portrait, 2021
Shadow Minister for Local Government and Faith
Assumed office
28 October 2022
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byMike Amesbury[a]
Opposition Whip
Assumed office
14 May 2021
LeaderKeir Starmer
Shadow Minister for Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Faith
In office
4 December 2021 – 28 October 2022
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byPaula Barker[b]
Member of Parliament
for Luton North
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byKelvin Hopkins
Majority9,247 (21.7%)
Personal details
Born (1983-01-11) 11 January 1983 (age 41)
Hastings, East Sussex, England
Political partyLabour
Children1
WebsiteOfficial website
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, she has served Shadow Minister for Local Government and Faith since October 2022, having previously served as Shadow Minister for Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Faith in the same shadow department between December 2021 and October 2022.

Owen is mixed heritage and the first MP of South East Asian ancestry. She states that her "mother's side of the family are Malaysian and a mix of Singaporean and Nonya with Chinese ancestors."[7]

Early life

Owen was born and raised in Hastings. Her mother's family is of Malaysian Chinese ancestry.[8][9]

Career

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][10][11] Owen has been a political adviser to Alan Sugar and has worked on Labour's national small business policy.[10]

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.[12][13]

Owen was formerly a political officer for the trade union GMB and has been a member of Labour's National Executive Committee.[11] She is chair of Chinese for Labour.[14]

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.[11] Owen was elected with a vote tally of 23,496, which was a majority of 9,247 votes over the Conservative Party candidate.[15]

On her election, Owen was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Lisa Nandy.[16] 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.[17]

On 14 April 2021, Owen announced that she was named Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rachel Reeves and was also appointed a whip.[18][19]

In December 2021, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Faith.[20] On 28 October 2022, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Local Government, replacing Mike Amesbury who resigned from his post on 30 June 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.

Electoral performance

UK general elections
Date of election Constituency Party Votes % of votes Result
2015 general election Hastings and Rye Labour 17,890 35.1 Not elected
2019 general election Luton North Labour 23,496 55.2 Elected

Personal life

Owen gave birth to a daughter in February 2020.[21][22] She has previously experienced miscarriages, a topic she spoke about through her union's newsletter for baby loss awareness.[23]

Notes

  1. ^ As Shadow Minister for Local Government. Office vacant between 30 June 2022 and 28 October 2022.
  2. ^ As Shadow Minister for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping

References

  1. ^ a b "英大選兩華裔勝出" [Two Chinese ancestry elected in the U.K. General election]. Sing Tao Daily. 15 December 2019. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b "兩華裔當選 女議員數目創新高" [Two Chinese ancestry elected, numbers of female MPs hit record high]. Wen Wei Po. 14 December 2019. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  3. ^ "No. 62862". The London Gazette. 20 December 2019. p. 23185.
  4. ^ "The 10 other Chinese candidates vying for House of Commons seats". South China Morning Post. 2 May 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  5. ^ Brunskill, Ian (2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. Glasgow. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ a b c Rodgers, Sienna (5 November 2019). "GMB's Sarah Owen picked as Labour's Luton North candidate". LabourList. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  7. ^ Owen, Sarah (11 February 2021). "East & South East Asians for Labour – a name truly representing our diversity". LabourList. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  8. ^ Simpson, Peter (5 May 2015). "The 10 other Chinese candidates vying for House of Commons seats". Post Magazine. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  9. ^ Urwin, Rosamund; Calver, Tom (15 December 2019). "At last, Labour wins a majority! It's got more women than men". The Times. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  10. ^ a b "Lord Sugar advisor chosen as new Labour candidate". Hastings & St. Leonards Observer. 5 December 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  11. ^ a b c Bond, Daniel (16 December 2019). "Class of 2019: Meet the new MPs". PoliticsHome. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  12. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  13. ^ "08 May 2015 Parliamentary Election – Results". Hastings Borough Council. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  14. ^ Leong, Sunny (25 November 2019). "Sarah Owen Labour Candidate for Luton North". Chinese for Labour. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  15. ^ "Luton North Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  16. ^ Chappell, Elliot. "Full list: Labour's new parliamentary private secretaries". LabourList. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  17. ^ Sarah Owen MP [@SarahOwen_] (15 October 2020). "I did not take this decision lightly but today I voted against the #CHISBill" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  18. ^ "Reshuffle: Keir Starmers new Labour frontbench". Labour List.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ^ Sarah Owen MP [@SarahOwen_] (14 April 2021). "It's an honour to be PPS to this brilliant Shadow Cabinet Minister, who was on fire today. @RachelReevesMP is absolutely right about the need for a proper inquiry to investigate Tory sleaze and cronyism" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  20. ^ Hughes, Lynn (8 December 2021). "New Shadow Minister role for Luton MP in Labour reshuffle". Luton Today. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  21. ^ Sarah Owen MP [@SarahOwen_] (4 February 2020). "In the last 24 hours this absolute bundle of joy entered our lives. She weighed in at 7.8lb and is already making her presence known. Thank you to the wonderful NHS for their care throughout the pregnancy and seeing her safely into this world" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Duncan, Euan (13 December 2019). "General Election 2019: Labour's double triumph in Luton". Luton Today. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  23. ^ Owen, Sarah (11 October 2019). "Baby Loss Awareness Week – Working Through Miscarriage". GMB Union. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

External links

Media related to Sarah Owen at Wikimedia Commons

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Luton North
2019–present 		Incumbent


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