Charlotte Owen, a former aide to Boris Johnson, has taken her seat as the youngest ever life peer in the House of Lords, despite criticism over her lack of professional experience. The 30-year-old became Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge after being formally introduced to the upper chamber on Monday afternoon.
Johnson nominated seven of his close allies to the Lords as part of his controversial resignation honours list, of which Owen was one of the last to take her seat.
Three of those nominated were in their 30s, including Ross Kempsell, a 31-year-old former journalist, and Ben Houchen, the 36-year-old Tees Valley mayor.
The former prime minister’s decision to nominate Owen was criticised not only because of her age, but also because of her relatively junior role. She was an official in Downing Street under Johnson, but her exact role and length of tenure have been questioned.
While her own LinkedIn profile states that she served as a No 10 special adviser from February 2021 until October 2022, she is not listed in the official government directory of special advisers published in June 2021.
Owen graduated from the University of York in 2015 before working for the communications firm Portland. She was a constituency intern for the Tory MP William Wragg for one month and then worked for others in the party, including Chris Heaton-Harris, Alok Sharma and Jake Berry.
Owen is not the only name on Johnson’s resignation honours list to have prompted questions. Kulveer Ranger was nominated to the Lords after serving as director of transport policy while Johnson was London mayor. But he was also credited as having been a “special adviser to the UK government on digital strategy” – a role that does not appear on his LinkedIn profile.
Houchen has been accused of “industrial-scale corruption” over a redevelopment project at the former Redcar steelworks, something he has denied.
The list also triggered upset among some of those whose names did not appear, including Nadine Dorries, who has threatened to quit as MP for Mid Bedfordshire after accusing Downing Street of having manoeuvred to make sure she would not receive a peerage. Dorries first said she would quit over a month ago immediately after the honours list was published, but has still not done so.
