David Owen

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 In office 30 June 1992 – 13 August 2024 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 86) Plympton, Devon, England
Political party	Independent (1990–present)
Other political affiliations	Labour (1960–1981) Social Democratic Party (1981–1988) "Continuing" Social Democratic Party (1988–1990)
Spouse	Deborah Schabert ​ (m. 1968)​
Children	3
Alma mater	Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge King's College London
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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 sat as an "independent social democrat" until his retirement in 2024.^[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.