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Sarah Owen

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Sarah Owen
MP
陳美麗[1][2]
Official portrait, 2021
Member of Parliament
for Luton North
Incumbent
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byKelvin Hopkins
Majority7,510 (19.4%)
Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office
12 September 2024
2022–2023Local Government and Faith
2021–2023Whip
2021–2022Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Faith
Preceded byCaroline Nokes
Personal details
Born (1983-01-11) 11 January 1983 (age 41)
Hastings, East Sussex, England
Political partyLabour
Alma materUniversity of Sussex
Signature
Websitesarahowen.org.uk
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese陳美麗
Simplified Chinese陈美丽
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChén Měilì
Wade–GilesChen2 Mei3-li4

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 Labour Party politician and trade unionist who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton North since 2019.[6] She 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.

Early life and career

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Sarah Owen was born on 11 January 1983 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]

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.[14]

Parliamentary career

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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.[15][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 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]

At the 2024 general election, Owen was re-elected to Parliament as MP for Luton North with a decreased vote share of 37.9% and a decreased majority of 7,510.[25]

On 11 September 2024, Owen was elected as Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee.[26]

Personal life

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Owen gave birth to a daughter in February 2020.[27][28] She has previously experienced miscarriages, a topic she spoke about through her union's newsletter for baby loss awareness.[29]

References

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  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. ^ Johnson, John (9 March 2022). "TRAILBLAZER: Sarah Owen on racism on the doorstep and being a role model". Politics Home. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  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. ^ Owen, Sarah (11 February 2021). "East & South East Asians for Labour – a name truly representing our diversity". LabourList. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Sarah Owen MP – Who is she?". Politics.co.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  12. ^ a b "Lord Sugar advisor chosen as new Labour candidate". Hastings & St. Leonards Observer. 5 December 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  13. ^ a b c Bond, Daniel (16 December 2019). "Class of 2019: Meet the new MPs". PoliticsHome. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  14. ^ Leong, Sunny (25 November 2019). "Sarah Owen Labour Candidate for Luton North". Chinese for Labour. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  15. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  16. ^ "08 May 2015 Parliamentary Election – Results". Hastings Borough Council. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  17. ^ "Luton North Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  18. ^ Chappell, Elliot (14 May 2020). "Full list: Labour's new parliamentary private secretaries". LabourList. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  19. ^ Sarah Owen MP [@SarahOwen_] (15 October 2020). "I did not take this decision lightly but today I voted against the #CHISBill" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  20. ^ "Reshuffle: Keir Starmers new Labour frontbench". Labour List. 14 May 2021.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ Hughes, Lynn (8 December 2021). "New Shadow Minister role for Luton MP in Labour reshuffle". Luton Today. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  23. ^ "Tory MP Mark Francois criticised for using 'outdated' racial slur". BBC News. 8 November 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  24. ^ "Wave of Labour frontbenchers resign to back calls for ceasefire in Gaza". Sky News. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  25. ^ "Luton North – General election results 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
  26. ^ https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/news/202852/sarah-owen-elected-chair-of-the-women-and-equalities-committee/
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ Duncan, Euan (13 December 2019). "General Election 2019: Labour's double triumph in Luton". Luton Today. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  29. ^ Owen, Sarah (11 October 2019). "Baby Loss Awareness Week – Working Through Miscarriage". GMB Union. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
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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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