Sarah Owen

Sarah Mei Li Owen[3] (Chinese: 陳美麗; pinyin: Chén Měilì;[1][2] born 1982 or 1983)[4] is a British Labour Party politician and trade unionist.[5] She has served as the MP for Luton North since 2019. Owen is British Chinese, making her the first Labour MP of East Asian descent, and the first female MP of Chinese descent.[5][6]

Sarah Owen

MP
陳美麗[1][2]
Owen in 2019
Member of Parliament
for Luton North
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byKelvin Hopkins
Majority9,247 (21.7%)
Personal details
BornHastings, East Sussex, England
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
Children1
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese陳美麗
Simplified Chinese陈美丽

Early life

Owen was born and raised in Hastings. Her mother's family is Chinese and lives in Malaysia.[7][8]

Career

Owen has 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.[5][9][10] Owen has also served as a political advisor to Alan Sugar and has worked on Labour's national small business policy.[9]

In 2011, Owen was chosen as the Labour Party candidate for Hastings and Rye to contest the next general election.[5] At the following 2015 general election, Owen finished in second place with 17,890 votes, which was 4,796 votes behind the elected Conservative Party candidate Amber Rudd.[11][12]

Owen was formerly a political officer for the trade union GMB and is currently a member of Labour's National Executive Committee.[10] She is Chair of Chinese for Labour.[13]

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.[10] Owen was elected with a vote tally of 23,496, which was a majority of 9,247 votes over the Conservative Party candidate.[14]

On her election, Owen was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Lisa Nandy.[15] 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.[16]

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.[17][18] She has previously experienced miscarriages, a topic she spoke about through her union's newsletter for baby loss awareness.[19]

References
  1. "英大選兩華裔勝出" [Two Chinese descents 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. "兩華裔當選 女議員數目創新高" [Two Chinese descents 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. Rodgers, Sienna (5 November 2019). "GMB's Sarah Owen picked as Labour's Luton North candidate". LabourList. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  6. Onibada, Ade (17 December 2019). "The New Parliament Has A Record Number Of Woman MPs And Is The Most Ethnically Diverse Ever". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  7. Simpson, Peter (5 May 2015). "The 10 other Chinese candidates vying for House of Commons seats". Post Magazine. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  8. 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.
  9. "Lord Sugar advisor chosen as new Labour candidate". Hastings & St. Leonards Observer. 5 December 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  10. Bond, Daniel (16 December 2019). "Class of 2019: Meet the new MPs". PoliticsHome. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  11. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  12. "08 May 2015 Parliamentary Election – Results". Hastings Borough Council. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  13. Leong, Sunny (25 November 2019). "Sarah Owen Labour Candidate for Luton North". Chinese for Labour. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  14. "Luton North Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  15. Chappell, Elliot. "Full list: Labour's new parliamentary private secretaries". LabourList. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  16. Owen, Sarah MP [SarahOwen_](15 October 2020) https://twitter.com/SarahOwen_/status/1316801162675449857?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet (Tweet) - via Twitter
  17. 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.
  18. Duncan, Euan (13 December 2019). "General Election 2019: Labour's double triumph in Luton". Luton Today. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  19. Owen, Sarah (11 October 2019). "Baby Loss Awareness Week – Working Through Miscarriage". GMB Union. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Kelvin Hopkins		 Member of Parliament for Luton North
2019–present		 Incumbent
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