Sarah Mei Li Owen (; born 11 January 1983) is a British politician and trade unionist serving as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) for Luton North since 2019. 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 The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, ...

with Chinese ancestors."

Early life

Owen was born and raised in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west a ...

. Her mother's family is of

Malaysian Chinese Malaysian Chinese (; Malay: ''Orang Cina Malaysia''), alternatively Chinese Malaysians, are Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese descent. They form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority constituting 22.4% of the Malaysian p ...

ancestry.

Career

Owen worked in the public sector as a care worker for the NHS, a political assistant for

Brighton and Hove City Council Brighton and Hove City Council is the local authority of the city of Brighton and Hove. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government services ...

and a

London Fire Brigade The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the fire and rescue service for London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865, under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. It has 5,992staff, i ...

employee in the emergency planning department. Owen has been a political adviser to Alan Sugar and has worked on Labour's national small business policy. In 2011, Owen was chosen as the Labour Party candidate for

Hastings and Rye Hastings and Rye is a constituency in East Sussex represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Sally-Ann Hart of the Conservative Party. From 2010 until 2019, it was represented by Amber Rudd, who served as Secretary of ...

to contest the next general election. At the 2015 general election, Owen finished in second place with 17,890 votes, which was 4,796 votes behind the elected

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

candidate Amber Rudd. Owen was formerly a political officer for the trade union GMB and has been a member of Labour's National Executive Committee. She is chair of Chinese for Labour. 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. Owen was elected with a vote tally of 23,496, which was a majority of 9,247 votes over the Conservative Party candidate. On her election, Owen was appointed the

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Lisa Nandy Lisa Eva Nandy (born 9 August 1979) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010. ...

. On 15 October 2020, Owen resigned as her position as PPS to vote against the proposed

Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021 (c. 4) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act makes provision for the use of undercover law enforcement agents and covert sources and the committing of crime ...

, disagreeing with the Labour Whip to abstain. On 14 April 2021, Owen announced that she was named

to Rachel Reeves and was also appointed a whip. In December 2021, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Faith. 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

Personal life

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

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Sarah Living people UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century British women politicians British politicians of Chinese descent British politicians of Malaysian descent English people of Chinese descent English trade unionists Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Hastings Women trade unionists 1983 births 21st-century English women 21st-century English people