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David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, is a British politician and physician. He served as Foreign Secretary in the Labour government of James Callaghan from 1977 to 1979, becoming the youngest person appointed to the position since 1935, and later led the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was a Member of Parliament for 26 years, from 1966 to 1992.
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science · British politician (born 1938) · politician · physician · also David Owen, David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, Owen
Born 2 July 1938 · Q333085
51 published statements · 0 followers
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The government could apply for an exclusion but even if we do that we are still left with the problem that the EU has gone more and more into the health service, because as more marketisation comes in there it becomes a greater justification for not treating it as an exception ... such as the insistence on putting more and more out to contract.
There are many positive aspects to leaving the EU. We will make our own laws again in our own parliament. We will rediscover the skills of blue-water diplomacy and rise to the challenge of global markets. It could be the spark we need to re-energise our nation: a challenge and an opportunity.
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“The government could apply for an exclusion but even if we do that we are still left with the problem that the EU has gone more and more into the health service, because as more marketisation comes in there it becomes a greater justification for not treating it as an exception ... such as the insistence on putting more and more out to contract.”
“There are many positive aspects to leaving the EU. We will make our own laws again in our own parliament. We will rediscover the skills of blue-water diplomacy and rise to the challenge of global markets. It could be the spark we need to re-energise our nation: a challenge and an opportunity.”
“spark we need to re-energise our nation”
Owen recounted that Blair implied that a “political future” awaited him if he rejoined Labour
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“was very tempted, but then [Blair] started to talk about the euro.”
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“s leadership for its failure to”
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As part of The History of Parliament's oral history project
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Was the first politician to call for a "no-fly zone" over Libya
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The culmination of these efforts, the privately funded and independent "Archer Report" in which Lord Owen was heavily involved, published its findings but was thwarted because it had no power to compel witnesses as it wa
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That Euro membership was off the agenda following the defeat of the EU Constitution in referendums in France and the Netherlands
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Sought to bring about an inquiry into the matter and was joined in his efforts by former Solicitor General for England and Wales Lord Archer, former Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Services Lord Jenkin
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On whether he was ready to support New Labour
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Career landmark: Chancellor of the University of Liverpool (1996–2009).
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Sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher until March 2014, and sat as an "independent social democrat" until his retirement in 2024
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Career landmark: member of the House of Lords (1992–2024).
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“Now it is clear that Milosevic really wants peace”
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Lord Owen and his wife Debbie cultivated a personal friendship with Milosevic and his wife Mira, flying in a helicopter to lunch with them in one of Tito's former palaces and offering publishing advice to Mira Milosevic"
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Career landmark: member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1990–1992).
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“Bradlaugh and Secularism: 'The Province of the Real'”
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Career landmark: member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1988–1990).
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Career landmark: member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1987–1988).
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Immediately after the election, the Liberal leader David Steel proposed a full merger of the Liberal and SDP parties and was supported for the SDP by Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers
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Career landmark: member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1983–1987).
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During the Falklands War, Owen spoke at the Bilderberg meeting advocating sanctions against Argentina
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Uneasy about the Alliance, Owen challenged Jenkins for the leadership of the SDP, but was defeated by 26,256 votes to 20,864
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Career landmark: member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1981–1983).
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Owen and three other senior moderate Labour politicians – Roy Jenkins, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams – announced their intention to break away from the Labour Party to form a "Council for Social Democracy"
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Owen was one of the "Gang of Four" who left the Labour Party to found the Social Democratic Party
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Committed itself to withdrawing from the EEC without even a referendum (as Labour had carried out in 1975)
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Career landmark: Shadow Foreign Secretary (1979–1979).
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Career landmark: member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1979–1981).
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Career landmark: Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (1979–1980).
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On which Namibia moved to independence twelve years later
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Career landmark: Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1977–1979).
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Owen was condemned by Black civil rights leader Billy Strachan for refusing to prevent the hanging of two Black Bermudians for murder in the British colony
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Career landmark: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (1976–1977).
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Career landmark: Member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom (1976).
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“self-sufficient as soon as practicable”
Career landmark: member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1974–1979).
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Career landmark: member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1974–1974).
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In protest at the Labour leader and former prime minister Harold Wilson's attitude to the European Communities; he left the Labour Shadow cabinet over the same issue later; and over unilateral disarmament in November 198
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Career landmark: member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1970–1974).
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He married Deborah Owen (née Schabert), an American literary agent, in 1968.
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Career landmark: member of the 44th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1966–1970).
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Owen returned to his home town and was elected Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for the Plymouth Sutton constituency
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Contested the Torrington seat as the Labour candidate against the Conservative incumbent, losing in what was a traditional Conservative–Liberal marginal
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Owen joined the Vauxhall branch of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society
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To study Medicine, and obtained a lower second; he was made an honorary fellow of the college in 1977
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Born 1938-07-02.
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To Welsh parents in Plympton, near the city of Plymouth, in Devon, England
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“Rules and Regulations for the Inhabitants of New Lanark”
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