I went to university with Charlotte Owen. If she’s a worthy lifetime peer, I’m a baroness

I’ve monitored Lady Owen’s career with interest, and increasing bafflement. If we’re in the business of enobling 30-year-old York grads with short – and not particularly distinguished – careers in parliament behind them, where’s mine, asks Olivia Utley

The 30-year-old, who was awarded Britain’s highest honour in Boris Johnson’s resignation list, has gone from parliamentary intern to baroness in a matter of just six years (Getty Images)

To say that Baroness Charlotte Owen’s rise to power has been meteoric would be something of an understatement. The 30-year-old, who was awarded Britain’s highest honour in Boris Johnson’s resignation list and has now taken her seat in the House of Lords, has gone from parliamentary intern to baroness in a matter of just six years.

She is currently the youngest person ever to sit in the House of Lords, but of course there is no expiration date on her new privilege. As a life peer, she will be scrutinising our legislation until she chooses to retire – and judging by the current House of Lords demographic, that’s not likely to be any time in the next half century.

I’ve monitored Lady Owen’s career with interest, and increasing bafflement, over the years because until a couple of years ago it almost precisely mirrored my own. We both studied at York University between 2012 and 2015, and even had a few mutual friends; when asked to describe her, one says, rather cattily: “Yeah she was fun, bit of a party girl, don’t remember her showing any great prowess for legislative scrutiny.” Like me, she went from university into the House of Commons to work as a parliamentary assistant for a government minister, in her case the right honourable Boris Johnson MP, then foreign secretary.