Dan Carden

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Dan Carden
MP
Official portrait of Dan Carden MP crop 2.jpg
Official portrait, 2020
Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office
9 April 2020 – 15 October 2020
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byAnneliese Dodds
Succeeded byJames Murray
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
In office
1 December 2018 – 6 April 2020
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byKate Osamor
Succeeded byPreet Gill
Shadow Minister for International Development
In office
12 January 2018 – 1 December 2018
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byRoberta Blackman-Woods
Succeeded byPreet Gill
Member of Parliament
for Liverpool Walton
Assumed office
8 June 2017
Preceded bySteve Rotheram
Majority30,520 (74.8%)
Personal details
Born
Daniel Joseph Carden[1]

(1986-10-28) 28 October 1986 (age 35)
Liverpool, England
Political partyLabour
Other political
affiliations		Socialist Campaign Group
Alma materLondon School of Economics
WebsiteOfficial website

Daniel Joseph Carden (born 28 October 1986) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Walton since 2017.[2] Carden served as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development from 2018 to 2020,[3] and Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury from April to October 2020.[4] He was reelected in 2019.[5]

Early life and career[]

Carden has described himself as a "proud Scouser", having been born and raised in Liverpool. His mother worked in the NHS for over 40 years.[6] His father, Mike Carden, was the shop steward during the Liverpool dockers' dispute during the 1990s, and was left unemployed for seven years after being sacked for refusing to cross a picket line. In his maiden speech, Carden recalled: “From the age of eight, I stood on picket lines, and I’m as proud to stand alongside workers in struggle today as an MP as I was then as a kid”.[7]

His secondary education was at St Edward's College in West Derby (OE 1998–2005) where he was the Head Boy.[8] He went on to study BSc International Relations at the London School of Economics, where he was also Chair of the University Labour Club.[9]

Prior to becoming an MP, Carden worked at Unite the Union in the office of its General Secretary, Len McCluskey.[10]

Parliamentary career[]

In 2017, Carden defeated Liverpool City Mayor Joe Anderson, Theresa Griffin MEP and others to be selected by the NEC to become Labour's candidate for Liverpool Walton, after the previous MP Steve Rotheram stood down to become Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor.[11] On 8 June, he was elected MP with 85.7% of the vote with a 32,551 majority – the strongest result in opposed elections in the seat's history.[12]

Carden is a patron of LGBT Labour, one of eight LGBT MPs elected in the 2017 general election.[13][14] An avowed socialist, he paid tribute to his predecessor Eric Heffer in a memorial lecture in January 2019.[15] He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group.[16]

In 2017, Carden campaigned for a ban on LGBT conversion therapy after a church in Anfield was exposed by a Liverpool Echo investigation for offering ritual starvation as a 'cure' for homosexuality.[17] In July 2018, the UK Government pledged to bring forward proposals for a legislative ban.[18]

In July 2018, Carden used two consecutive Prime Minister's Questions to call for the new Royal Liverpool Hospital to be delivered in the public sector following the collapse of Carillion.[19][20] On 25 September 2018, it was reported that the government would terminate the Private finance initiative deal, taking the hospital into full public ownership.[21]

In the run-up to the 2019 General Election, a Buzzfeed journalist alleged that Carden had replaced the lyrics to the chorus of The Beatles' Hey Jude with "Hey Jews" during a coach trip with other Labour MPs and journalists from Cheltenham races 20 months earlier.[22] Labour MP Mark Tami refuted the allegations.[23] Carden denied the allegations, stating: "This was a coach full of journalists and MPs. If anyone genuinely believed any anti-semitic behaviour had taken place, they would've had a moral responsibility to report it immediately. Yet this allegation is only made now when a General Election is imminent."[24]

Carden successfully defended his Liverpool Walton seat in the 2019 general election, winning 34,538 votes. This represented 84.7% of the vote.[5]

In November 2021, Carden, who has previously spoken out about his struggle with alcohol addiction, tabled an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill which would introduce minimum unit pricing.[25]

Shadow International Development Secretary[]

On 1 December 2018, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for International Development after the resignation of Kate Osamor following events surrounding her son's drugs conviction.[3]

In the run-up to the 2019 General Election, Carden promised “the most radical international development policies ever seen in this country.”[26] He said Labour would turn the CDC Group into a green development bank and create a new Public Services Unit for water, healthcare and education.[27][28] Other policy plans included banning all aid spending on fossil fuels, support for trade unions globally, tripling funding for women's rights groups, introducing an ombudsman for abuse in aid sector and support for small-scale farmers with a Food Sovereignty Fund.[29]

Carden called for the UK to use its influence to democratise the IMF and World Bank, challenging the agenda of liberalising markets, cutting social spending and privatising public services “so the poorest countries can decide their own destiny”.[30] Alongside Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, he proposed an Overseas Loan Transparency Act to establish a new compulsory register to put an end to exploitative secret loans to foreign governments.[31] At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carden called for the debts of countries in the Global South to be cancelled so that resources could go towards healthcare not debt repayments.[32][33]

Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury[]

On 9 April 2020, Carden became Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury following a reshuffle by new party leader Keir Starmer.[4] In October, he accused the Conservative government of corruption in its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting public contracts handed to Tory-linked firms without competition or transparency.[34]

On 15 October, Carden resigned from Labour's front bench in order to vote against the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill, defying the party's instruction to abstain.[35] In his resignation letter, he wrote: "As a Liverpool MP and trade unionist, I share the deep concerns about this legislation from across the labour movement, human rights organisations, and so many who have suffered the abuse of state power, from blacklisted workers to the Hillsborough families and survivors."[36]

Personal life[]

Carden is gay.[37] He is a supporter of Liverpool F.C. and an advocate of football fan activism, including Liverpool and Everton supporters' initiative Fans Supporting Foodbanks.[38]

References[]

  1. ^ "No. 61961". The London Gazette. 19 June 2017. p. 11778.
  2. ^ Thorp, Liam (11 May 2017). "We meet the 30-year-old who beat Mayor Anderson to contest Liverpool MP role". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Labour MP Kate Osamor resigns as shadow international development secretary". New Statesman. 1 December 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  4. ^ a b Rodgers, Sienna (9 April 2020). "Shadow ministers appointed as Starmer completes frontbench". LabourList. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Liverpool Walton parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  6. ^ "Trade unionist Dan Carden selected in Liverpool Walton". Left Futures. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  7. ^ "Dan Carden, maiden speech (full)". YouTube. 13 September 2018.
  8. ^ "Secondary education".
  9. ^ "Dan Carden MP talks Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn and music venue closures". Getintothis. 22 October 2018.
  10. ^ "Unite aide wins selection for coveted Liverpool Walton seat". Labour List. 9 May 2017.
  11. ^ Thomas, Joe (9 June 2017). "Liverpool's new MP Dan Carden 'absolutely honoured'". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  12. ^ "Liverpool, Walton - 2017 Election Results". General Elections Online. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  13. ^ "Patrons". LGBT+ Labour.
  14. ^ "The UK just elected a record number of LGBTQ people to Parliament". Pink News.
  15. ^ Carden, Dan (27 January 2019). "Never a Yes Man". Tribune.
  16. ^ @DanCardenMP (20 December 2018). "Last night @jeremycorbyn visited our Socialist Campaign Group meeting in the same room he was nominated to stand for Leader of the Labour Party" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  17. ^ Parry, John (2 July 2018). "Parliament hears calls for ban on gay 'cure' therapies after ECHO investigation". Liverpool ECHO.
  18. ^ Parry, John (3 July 2018). "Government moves to 'end' gay cure therapy after ECHO investigation". Liverpool ECHO.
  19. ^ "Liverpool Royal Hospital: MP calls for public ownership of stalled build". BBC. 11 July 2018.
  20. ^ Humphries, Jonathan (8 August 2018). "Liverpool's 'new' Royal hospital stands empty - how did it come to this and when will it finally be finished?". Liverpool ECHO.
  21. ^ "Stalled Royal Liverpool Hospital to be publicly funded". BBC. 25 September 2018.
  22. ^ Wickham, Alex (9 November 2019). "A Senior Labour Politician Sang "Hey Jews" To The Song "Hey Jude"". Buzzfeed.
  23. ^ Badshah, Nadeem (9 November 2019). "Labour MPs face fresh claims of antisemitic and anti-LGBT remarks". The Guardian.
  24. ^ @DanCardenMP (9 November 2019). ""I have been categorical in my denial about allegations relating to a coach trip some 20 months ago."" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  25. ^ Chappell, Elliot (18 November 2021). "Labour MP with history of alcohol addiction calls for minimum unit pricing". LabourList. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  26. ^ MP, Dan Carden (21 November 2019). "I'm proud of our section of the #LabourManifesto, with the most radical international development policies ever seen in this country..."
  27. ^ McVeigh, Karen (21 November 2019). "Labour vows to make UK development bank a champion of climate justice". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  28. ^ Carden, Dan (7 August 2019). "People, not profit". Fabians. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  29. ^ "2019 Labour Manifesto". The Labour Party.
  30. ^ @DanCardenMP (11 April 2019). "To end global poverty we must change the rules of a failed economic system..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  31. ^ "A Labour Government Will Not Ignore The Global Debt Crisis". Huffington Post UK. 17 June 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  32. ^ Carden, Dan (25 March 2020). "The British government has abandoned the Global South to coronavirus". Open Democracy UK.
  33. ^ @DanCardenMP (1 April 2020). "We must go beyond aid and charity in supporting countries in the Global South" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  34. ^ Elvin, Sian (15 October 2020). "MP's powerful speech accuses Government of 'corruption' and 'cronyism'". Metro.
  35. ^ Rodgers, Sienna (15 October 2020). "Dan Carden quits Labour frontbench over 'spycops' bill". LabourList.
  36. ^ Burtenshaw, Ronan (15 October 2020). "Dan Carden Resigns from Labour Frontbench over CHIS Bill". Tribune.
  37. ^ Thorp, Liam (31 May 2019). "Gay Liverpool MP's perfect reply to Esther McVey's LGBT school comments". Liverpool Echo.
  38. ^ Johnson, Mark (22 September 2017). "Foodbank support shows 'best of Scousers'". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 18 January 2018.

External links[]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton
2017–present 		Incumbent
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