Dan Carden

Daniel Joseph Carden (born 28 October 1986) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Walton since 2017.

Carden served as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development from 2018 to 2020, and Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury from April to October 2020. He resigned from the latter role due to the disagreements with the party leadership over the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill.

Carden is a patron of LGBT Labour, one of eight LGBT MPs newly elected in the 2017 general election. An avowed socialist, he paid tribute to his predecessor Eric Heffer in a memorial lecture in January 2019. He is a former member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus but left the group in 2024.

Early life and career
Daniel Carden was born on 28 October 1986 in Liverpool. His mother worked in the NHS for over 40 years. His father, Mike Carden, was a 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”.

His secondary education was at St Edward's College in West Derby, Liverpool, where he was the Head Boy. He went on to study International Relations at the London School of Economics, graduating with a BSc, where he was also chair of the university Labour Club.

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

First term (2017–2019)
In June 2017, Carden defeated Liverpool City Mayor Joe Anderson, Theresa Griffin MEP and others to be selected by the NEC to be selected as the Labour candidate for Liverpool Walton. At the snap 2017 general election, Carden was elected to Parliament as MP for Liverpool Walton with 85.7% of the vote and a majority of 32,551.

In October 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. In July 2018, the UK Government pledged to bring forward proposals for a legislative ban.

Also 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. On 25 September 2018, it was reported that the government would terminate the Private finance initiative deal, taking the hospital into full public ownership.

Shadow International Development Secretary
On 1 December 2018, Carden was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for International Development after the resignation of Kate Osamor.

In the run-up to the 2019 General Election, Carden promised “the most radical international development policies ever seen in this country.” 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. 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.

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”. 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. 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.

At the 2019 general election, Carden was re-elected as MP for Liverpool Walton with a decreased vote share of 84.7% and a decreased majority of 30,520.

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. 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.

Return to the backbenches
On 15 October 2021, 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. 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."

Carden has become involved with the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In March 2022, Carden delivered an address to the global assembly of parliamentarians in Indonesia. Referencing his Irish heritage, he called on countries to accept more refugees and to reject "anti-migrant, racist rhetoric". In November 2022, Carden became Treasurer of the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. On 12 March 2023, at the Inter-Parliamentary Union's 146th Assembly in Manama, Bahrain, Carden was elected President of the Board of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians.

In September 2023, Carden was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, after Samantha Dixon left the position to become a whip. However, on 15 November 2023, Dan Carden was among 10 frontbench Labour MPs to resign their roles in order to vote in favour of a motion tabled by the SNP calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, joining a group of 56 Labour MPs in defying the party's instruction to abstain.

On 13 December 2023, Carden was appointed Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Mexico.

In June 2024, Carden was reselected as the Labour candidate for Liverpool Walton at the 2024 general election.

Alcohol addiction and recovery
In July 2021, Carden revealed during a parliamentary debate that in his early twenties alcohol addiction had nearly killed him amid the pressure of coming to terms with his sexuality. In recovery since 2019, Carden credits his sobriety to the support of his family and friends, as well as the guidance of support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 2021, Carden led a campaign to deliver the recommendations of Dame Carol Black’s Independent Review of Drugs, securing the largest ever investment for addiction treatment services. He has also campaigned for measures such as minimum unit pricing and greater regulation of alcohol advertising. Working with Alcohol Health Alliance UK, he has led calls for an Independent Review of Alcohol to inform a new Alcohol Strategy, highlighting that despite record alcohol-specific deaths, the UK has not published a strategy for tackling alcohol harm since 2012.

Carden is an Ambassador for Adfam and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drugs, Alcohol and Justice.