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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]
Sarah Owen | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 陳美麗[1][2] | |||||||||||
 Official portrait, 2021 | |||||||||||
| Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee | |||||||||||
| Assumed office 12 September 2024 | |||||||||||
| Preceded by | Caroline Nokes | ||||||||||
| Member of Parliament for Luton North | |||||||||||
| Assumed office 12 December 2019 | |||||||||||
| Preceded by | Kelvin Hopkins | ||||||||||
| Majority | 7,510 (19.4%) | ||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||
| Born | 11 January 1983 Hastings, East Sussex, England | ||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Sussex | ||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||
| Website | sarahowen | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 陳美麗 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陈美丽 | ||||||||||
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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.
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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]
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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]
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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]
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