Speeches by Carden.

“How often would you speak to the Foreign Secretary and Ministers? What advice would you give to Ministers and to people at the UN so that they can be as effective as possible in what are currently very troubling times?”

“Welcome, Minister. I have a couple of questions about the scrutiny so far. You recently gave evidence to a House of Lords Committee setting out that the Bill that will be presented to Parliament will be an opportunity to scrutinise the treaty. However, given that it has already been agreed with the Government of Maurit…”

“Do you intend for the Committee stage to take place in Committee or on the Floor of the House?”

“Finally, this process will cede sovereignty to Mauritius. Will the Bill be the instrument by which sovereignty is ceded?”

“We have covered a lot of the detail of the payments and all that. On sovereignty, every issue nowadays is polarising, and this is one. I can sense your frustration with how it has been used politically, but many people out there care deeply about Britain’s sovereignty. They will consider that when British sovereignty i…”

“But our defence forces would be there and would be deployed to deal with those threats.”

“We see week in, week out, that there is a lot happening at the United Nations. You say we have had its golden age. Do you think what happens at the United Nations still matters as much to the UK Government?”

“I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s calls to move this to a negotiated solution, and his focus on UK defence and security. He is right that Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon. However, history also teaches us, on regime change, that interventions aimed at regime change in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan have produced p…”

“The regime has murdered— Seyed Ali Mousavi: Iranian Government. Please.”

“—over 1,000 of its citizens in 2024. Do you know how many of your own citizens the Iranian regime has murdered this year, in 2025? Seyed Ali Mousavi: I am sorry, Excellency, but there is a very dangerous and mistaken assumption in your question. Your question is not correct.”

“They are UN figures. Seyed Ali Mousavi: As the Iranian ambassador to you, why are you referring to misunderstandings, misinformation and disinformation? All of them are totally wrong. I am telling you that nobody is perfect—we do have some problems—but these kinds of question have their own false assumptions and are ba…”

“We might be interrupted by bells, but I will have a go. Welcome, Ambassador. It strikes me that any attempt to get to a diplomatic outcome is going to require trust on all sides. Trust is something that the Iranian regime simply does not have. You talked in your opening remarks about international law. You talked about…”

“Welcome back, Sir David. You have answered all the questions in your first reply, but I will give it a go. I was going to touch on a couple of points. First, aside from Committee work, are there any other tools that Parliament has? I think you have given us quite a bit on that. Secondly, when Parliament seeks to debate…”

“It is not written down anywhere.”

“Just to go back, you mentioned MPs already having a special status on things such as immigration cases. That is by convention more than anything else, is it not?”

“It is not written down anywhere.”

“Just to go back, you mentioned MPs already having a special status on things such as immigration cases. That is by convention more than anything else, is it not?”

“Welcome back, Sir David. You have answered all the questions in your first reply, but I will give it a go. I was going to touch on a couple of points. First, aside from Committee work, are there any other tools that Parliament has? I think you have given us quite a bit on that. Secondly, when Parliament seeks to debate…”

“It is good to see you, Ambassador. Could you give us your assessment of the role that the UK has played in the region over these last few years? Our Committee is trying to look at the role of the UK Government. What are you saying when you meet Government Ministers? What is your advice to them?”

“I welcome the Home Secretary’s emphasis on the contribution of migrants; historically, the city of Liverpool has been made up of migrants. I welcome the White Paper and her statement today, in particular linking migration to labour market strategy, because migration is a key economic lever of the state. Does she agree …”