'Albert Owen' (born
10 August 1959) is a
Welsh politician, and
member of Parliament for
Ynys Môn for the
Labour Party. He took the seat in the
2001 election from
Plaid Cymru with a margin of exactly eight hundred votes and retained the seat with an increased majority of approximately twelve hundred votes in the
2005 election. He is a member of the Parliamentary
Welsh Affairs Select Committee.
Career
Like most of
Holyhead, his hometown, including the Labour
MEP Glenys Kinnock, he attended the
Holyhead County Comprehensive School. 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, 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 elections.
In Parliament
Albert has rebelled against the Labour Party's political whip on certain occasions. Most notably:
★ he voted 'against' the government's
Higher Education Funding Bill - 27th January, 2004
★ he voted 'against' the
House of Lords amendment on
foundation hospitals - 19th November, 2003
★ he voted 'for' an outright ban on
hunting with dogs - 30th June, 2003 (this was 'not' a whipped vote and this should not be seen as a rebellion)
★ he voted 'for' an
anti-war amendment during the
Iraq crisis debate - 18th March, 2003
External links
★
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Albert Owen MP
★
TheyWorkForYou.com - Albert Owen MP
Offices Held