Albert Owen (born 10 August 1959) is a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

Labour Party politician who served 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 bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Ynys Môn from 2001 to 2019. He took the seat in the 2001 election from

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

with a margin of exactly eight hundred votes and retained the seat at the four subsequent general elections. During his time in Parliament, he was a member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee,

Welsh Affairs Select Committee The Welsh Affairs Select Committee (or simply the 'Welsh Affairs Committee') is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy ...

and the

International Development Committee The International Development Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the international aid functions of ...

. He was also a member of the Speaker's Panel of Chairs and vice-chair of the

all-party parliamentary group An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...

on cancer.

Early life

Like most of his hometown Holyhead, including the Labour MEP

Glenys Kinnock Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (''née'' Parry; born 7 July 1944), is a British politician and former teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the ...

, he attended the Holyhead County Comprehensive School.Albert Owen biography
''The Guardian'', accessed 12 August 2008 He left when he was sixteen for a career in the Merchant Navy, and was a seaman until 1992. In 1995, he became an advisor in the

Citizens Advice Bureau Citizens AdviceCitizens Advice is the operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux which is the umbrella charity for a wider network of local advice centres. The abbreviation CitA is sometimes used to refer to this nation ...

, specialising in welfare rights, and from 1997 to 2001 he managed the J. E. O'Toole Centre in Holyhead – a centre dedicated to the welfare, education and leisure of unemployed workers in Holyhead. In 1999, he unsuccessfully stood for the Labour party in the

Welsh Assembly The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh ...

elections. From the University of York he gained a BA in politics in 1997.

In Parliament

During his Parliamentary career, Owen has rebelled against the Labour Party's political whip on certain occasions including notably: * voting against the government's Higher Education Funding Bill introducing "top up fees" on 27 January 2004 * voting against the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

amendment on

foundation hospital A foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care (and, until the abolition of SHAs in 2013, their local s ...

s on 19 November 2003 * voting for an anti-war amendment during the

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

crisis debate on 18 March 2003, though he was subsequently absent for a vote on requiring Security Council support for any further action * voting against the Labour Party whip and for' an amendment tabled by members of

The Independent Group The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...

for a second public vote on 14 March 2019. He supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the failed attempt to replace

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

in the

2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 2016 Labour Party leadership election was called when a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party arose following criticism of his approach to the Remain campaign in the referendum on membership of the European Union and q ...

. He stood down at the 2019 election.

Personal life

He married Angela Margaret Magee. They have two daughters (born January 1985 and August 1986). He is a supporter of

Everton Football Club Everton Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Liverpool that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club was a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and has compe ...

. He said "I have a passion for football. I remember, as a young man in the 1970s, watching

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

play

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a association football, football stadium in the Walton, Liverpool, Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area ...

, my favourite football team’s stadium."

References

External links

*
Albert Owen MP
Welsh Labour Party profile * {{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Albert 1959 births Living people Alumni of the University of York Welsh sailors People from Holyhead Welsh Labour Party MPs UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 People educated at Holyhead High School UK MPs 2015–2017 British Merchant Navy personnel UK MPs 2017–2019