Baroness Owen Of Alderley Edge, 30, Made Her Maiden Speech In The House Of Lords

Evening Standard

Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge, 30, made her maiden speech in the House of Lords yesterday afternoon.Baroness Owen, who is the youngest life peer in the upper chamber, grinned and thanked new colleagues as she made her first remarks.“It has been quite the journey getting to this moment,” she said. Owen became a life peer in July after she was nominated by Boris Johnson in his resignation honours list. She had worked for Johnson for at least three years as a junior political aide.

Transcript

00:00 My Lords, it is a tremendous privilege to make my maiden speech in your Lordships'

00:06 House. It has been quite the journey getting to this moment, and I am immensely grateful

00:12 for the guidance and advice that so many noble Lords have offered me. I am especially grateful

00:19 to my noble friends and supporters, Lady Foster of Oxden and Lady Meyer, and my noble friends

00:26 and wonderful mentors, Lady Morris of Bolton and Lady Sackham. I would like to express

00:32 my gratitude to Blackrod, the clerks, the doorkeepers, everyone who works in the House,

00:39 and the special advisers who have helped me navigate my first few weeks in the role. I

00:45 am also most grateful for the friendship and support of all my friends in the other place,

00:51 who I have had the honour of working with for a number of years. A peerage is both an

00:58 honour and a responsibility. It is a responsibility I take incredibly seriously. It is testament

01:06 to the high level of discourse in this place that debate can be robust yet incredibly collegiate.

01:14 I have been overwhelmed by the welcome of noble Lords across your Lordships' House,

01:21 all of whom have said how important it is for younger voices to be part of your Lordships'

01:28 deliberations.

01:29 I am part of a generation whose unique opportunities are also accompanied by new challenges, from

01:37 the difficulty of getting on to the housing ladder to the spiralling cost of university

01:43 debt to the complexities of living in a social media age to the very real fear over our climate.

01:51 We live in a time of great change. It is a confusing time. It is also a time of instability

01:59 and anxiety. This is perhaps so for everyone, but it is surely so for the young.

02:07 I was born in 1993. George Michael was still at No. 1, and the Spice Girls were about to

02:16 set in motion a wave of girl power. I am a child of the dial-up internet connection,

02:23 when mobile phones were only for phone calls, and the World Wide Web was about to be launched

02:29 to the public.

02:32 Throughout my life, I have witnessed not only the benefits of our ever-closer relationship

02:37 with technology, but sadly also the threats that such advances can bring. This is an issue

02:44 of great and increasing concern to me, as I am sure it should be to us all.

02:50 I have followed with great interest the Online Safety Bill. This Bill represents a landmark

02:57 in online safety, and I was delighted that my vote contributed to making the UK one of

03:03 the safest places in the world to be online—something of which this Government should be hugely

03:09 proud. However, the online world is evolving at pace, and we should not be complacent.

03:18 I am greatly encouraged that the UK has shown leadership by hosting the first global summit

03:24 on artificial intelligence, and that the gracious speech reaffirmed the UK's commitment to

03:30 leading international discussions to ensure its safe development.

03:36 I look forward to addressing both the challenges and opportunities that technology, and in

03:41 particular AI, presents. I must also thank the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson,

03:49 who put a great deal of trust in me. I will be forever grateful not only for this, but

03:55 for his kindness and encouragement. I feel immensely privileged to have worked with him

04:01 and other Cabinet Ministers during my time at No. 10. I was delighted that his commitment

04:08 to delivering the referendum result, his optimism, his vision for levelling up the country and

04:14 for ensuring that life chances are fairly distributed, resulted in the seismic election

04:19 victory of 2019.

04:24 I wish to take a moment to pay tribute to my parents, and especially my dear late father.

04:31 Born in Anston in 1930, he was a child during the war and would often tell me of the horrors

04:37 of those days, such as the time he went cycling with his brother and they had to jump off

04:42 their bikes and take cover as a Messerschmitt 109 machine gun a passing freight train. Another

04:49 time the windows of his family home were blown out when the House opposite took a direct

04:55 hit during the Manchester Blitz. Despite this, my father always had a positive outlook on

05:02 life. I like to think that this is a quality he instilled in me. He did not even complain

05:08 when his retirement plans changed because of my arrival in the world. When I was a small

05:14 girl, he would often tell me it was possible to achieve anything that I put my mind to.

05:22 It was aspiration and the desire to get on in life that helped shape my parents' politics.

05:28 My mother has told me of how her own parents' lives changed when Margaret Thatcher's Government

05:34 gave them the opportunity to buy the council house in Alderley Edge, allocated to my grandfather

05:40 on his return from the war—a policy I am sure most of your Lordships remember and for

05:45 which some of your Lordships were perhaps responsible. My grandmother was so delighted

05:51 by this policy that she went around knocking on all her neighbours' doors to let them

05:56 know about this life-changing opportunity. Owning their own home up until that point

06:03 was beyond their wildest dreams. It seems that levelling up was alive and well decades

06:10 ago. It is vital that we create a climate where younger generations have the chance

06:19 of home ownership, so that they too can feel secure for their future.

06:26 I end where I began, with thanks, and express my gratitude to all noble Lords for the warmth

06:33 of their welcome and the kindness shown to me. During my time in your Lordships' House,

06:40 I hope to repay that kindness.

06:44 Amen.

06:45 [Applause.]

06:46 [End of session.]

06:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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