Albert Owen

Albert Owen (born 10 August 1959) is a Welsh politician, and member of Parliament for Ynys Mon for the Labour Party. He took the seat in the 2001 election from Plaid Cymru with a margin of exactly six-hundred votes. He is a member of the Parliamentary Welsh Affairs Select Committee .

Career

Like most of Holyhead, his hometown, including the Labour MEP Glennys 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
• he voted for an anti-war amendment during the Iraq crisis debate - 18th March, 2003