Dan Carden


Daniel Joseph Carden is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton since 2017.

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. 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”.
His secondary education was at St Edward's College in West Derby where he was the Head Boy. He went on to study BSc International Relations at the London School of Economics, where he was also Chair of the University Labour Club.
Prior to becoming an MP, Carden worked as a caseworker and with Len McCluskey at Unite the Union.

Parliamentary career

In 2017, Carden defeated Liverpool City Mayor Joe Anderson, Theresa Griffin MEP and other prominent local figures 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. On 8 June, he was elected MP with 85.7% of the vote with a 32,551 majority – the strongest result in the seat's history.
Carden is a patron of LGBT Labour, one of eight LGBT MPs elected in the 2017 General Election. An avowed socialist, he has been compared to his predecessor Eric Heffer, to whom he paid tribute in a memorial lecture in January 2019. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group.
Carden successfully defended his Liverpool Walton seat in the 2019 General Election, winning 34,538 votes. This represented 84.7% of the vote.

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.
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 2019–20 coronavirus 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.

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.

Personal life

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