For other people named David Owen, see David Owen (disambiguation).
The Right Honourable
The Lord Owen
CH PC FRCP
Official portrait, 2018
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 21 February 1977 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister
James Callaghan
Preceded by
Anthony Crosland
Succeeded by
The Lord Carrington
Party political offices
Leader of the "Continuing" Social Democratic Party
In office 3 March 1988 – 6 June 1990
Preceded by
Party established
Succeeded by
Party dissolved
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
In office 21 June 1983 – 6 August 1987
President
Shirley Williams
Preceded by
Roy Jenkins
Succeeded by
Bob Maclennan
Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic Party
In office October 1982 – 21 June 1983
Leader
Roy Jenkins
Preceded by
Position established
Succeeded by
Position abolished
Junior ministerial offices
Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 10 September 1976 – 21 February 1977
Prime Minister
James Callaghan
Sec. of State
Anthony Crosland
Preceded by
Roy Hattersley
Succeeded by
Frank Judd
Minister of State for Health and Social Security
In office 26 July 1974 – 10 September 1976
Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
Sec. of State
Barbara Castle David Ennals
Preceded by
Brian O'Malley
Succeeded by
Roland Moyle
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security
In office 8 March 1974 – 26 July 1974
Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
Sec. of State
Barbara Castle
Preceded by
Michael Alison
Succeeded by
Robert Brown
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Royal Navy
In office 3 July 1968 – 18 June 1970
Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
Sec. of State
Denis Healey
Preceded by
Maurice Foley
Succeeded by
Peter Kirk
Shadow Cabinet offices
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy
In office 14 July 1979 – 4 November 1980
Leader
James Callaghan
Shadowing
David Howell
Preceded by
Tom King
Succeeded by
Merlyn Rees
Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 4 May 1979 – 14 July 1979
Leader
James Callaghan
Shadowing
The Lord Carrington
Preceded by
Francis Pym
Succeeded by
Peter Shore
Parliamentary offices
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 June 1992 Life peerage
Member of Parliament for Plymouth Devonport
In office 28 February 1974 – 16 March 1992
Preceded by
Joan Vickers
Succeeded by
David Jamieson
Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton
In office 31 March 1966 – 8 February 1974
Preceded by
Ian Fraser
Succeeded by
Alan Clark
Personal details
Born
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen
(1938-07-02) 2 July 1938 (age 85) Plympton, Devon, England
Political party
Independent (1990–present)
Other political affiliations
Labour (1960–1981) SDP (1981–1988) 'Continuing' SDP (1988–1990)
Spouse
Deborah Schabert
(m. 1968)
Children
3
Alma mater
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
King's College London
Signature
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, CH, PC, FRCP (born 2 July 1938)[1] is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 to 1979, and later led the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was a Member of Parliament for 26 years, from 1966 to 1992.
Owen served as British Foreign Secretary from 1977 to 1979, at the age of 38 the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post. In 1981, Owen was one of the "Gang of Four" who left the Labour Party to found the Social Democratic Party. He was the only member of the Gang of Four who did not join the Liberal Democrats, which was founded when the SDP merged with the Liberal Party. Owen led the Social Democratic Party from 1983 to 1987, and the continuing SDP from 1988 to 1990. Appointed as a life peer in 1992, he sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher until March 2014, and now sits as an "independent social democrat".[2]
In the course of his career, Owen has held, and resigned from, a number of senior posts. He first quit as Labour's spokesman on defence in 1972 in protest at the Labour leader and former Prime Minister Harold Wilson's attitude to the European Economic Community; he left the Labour Shadow cabinet over the same issue later; and over unilateral disarmament in November 1980 when Michael Foot became Labour leader. He resigned from the Labour Party when it rejected one member, one vote in February 1981 and later as Leader of the Social Democratic Party, which he had helped to found, after the party's rank-and-file membership voted to merge with the Liberal Party.
^"Dr David Owen (Hansard)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 10 May 2021.
^
Eaton, George (2 March 2014). "David Owen joins Miliband's big tent with donation to Labour of more than £7,500". New Statesman. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
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