Hodge served as the Labour
MP for
Barking after winning the
by-election on 9 June 1994 following the death of
Jo Richardson. Whilst still a new MP, she endorsed the candidature of
Tony Blair, a former Islington neighbour, for the
Labour Party leadership, following the sudden death of
John Smith from a heart attack. In 2017, she had a majority of 21,608. On 2 December 2021 she announced she would not be standing at the next general election, and she ceased to be an MP in June 2024.
Ministerial roles Hodge was appointed
Junior Minister for Disabled People in 1998 and was promoted
Minister for Universities at the new
Department for Education and Skills in 2001, in which capacity she piloted the controversial
Higher Education Act 2004, remaining in post until 2003, when she became the inaugural
Children's Minister. She was sworn into the
Privy Council on 22 June 2003. In 2005, Hodge was moved to become
Minister of State for Work. On 17 June 2005, she was criticised for saying that former employees of
MG Rover would be able to obtain jobs at
Tesco, a local supermarket. Later, she claimed that this was not what she meant, rather that she had empathy for those losing their jobs, and was pointing to a new Tesco supermarket as an example of new jobs being created in the area in face of the redundancies at the car manufacturing plant. On 27 June 2007, Hodge was reappointed
Minister of State in the
Department for Culture by new
Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Following the
Cabinet reshuffle of 3 October 2008, it was announced that Hodge was "temporarily leaving Government on compassionate grounds of family illness and will return to Government in the Spring". While she was absent from the Government, she was temporarily replaced as
Minister of State by
Barbara Follett. Hodge was reappointed Minister of State responsible for Culture and Tourism on 22 September 2009. In January 2010, Hodge announced that
Royal Parks, which manages
Richmond Park and
Bushy Park in the
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames among others, was to be allowed to charge car drivers £2 per visit. This announcement sparked protests in
South London and was opposed by local politicians including Conservative
Zac Goldsmith, Liberal Democrats
Vince Cable and
Susan Kramer.
Barking and the BNP Hodge once called for British-born families to have priority on council house waiting lists over immigrants. This comment received praise from the far-right political party the
BNP and led to calls for Hodge to resign. However, her comments would be defended by her colleagues. In April 2006, Hodge commented in an interview with
The Sunday Telegraph that eight out of ten
white working class voters in her
constituency might be tempted to vote for the
British National Party (BNP) at the
May 2006 local elections because "no one else is listening to them" about their concerns over unemployment, high house prices and the housing of asylum seekers in the area. She said the
Labour Party must promote "very, very strongly the benefits of the new, rich multi-racial society which is part of this part of London for me". There was widespread
media coverage of her remarks, and Hodge was strongly criticised for giving the BNP publicity. The BNP went on to gain eleven council seats at the
2006 election out of a total of 51, making them the second-largest party. It was reported that Labour activists accused Hodge of generating hundreds of extra votes for the BNP, and that local members began to privately discuss the possibility of a move to
deselect her. The
GMB wrote to Hodge in May 2006, demanding her resignation. Writing in
The Observer on 20 May 2007 Hodge argued that established families should take priority in the allocation of
social housing over new
economic migrants, stating that "We should look at policies where the legitimate sense of entitlement felt by the indigenous family overrides the legitimate need demonstrated by the new migrants." Her comments were condemned by the
Refugee Council and other representative bodies. In November 2009, the Leader of the BNP,
Nick Griffin, announced that he intended to contest the Barking seat at the
2010 general election. In spite of the union's position, Hodge was the Labour candidate and was returned as the Member of Parliament, doubling her majority, whilst Griffin finished in third place behind the
Conservatives. The BNP lost all their council seats in the
2010 election.
Public Accounts Committee On 10 June 2010 Hodge was elected by
MPs to the Chair of the
Public Accounts Committee in the fifth round of voting using the
single transferable vote system.
Gus O'Donnell, then head of the
civil service, accused her of presiding over a "theatrical exercise in public humiliation", while
Alan Duncan accused her of being "abusive and bullying" towards
Rona Fairhead. She explained: "All I could do as a shareholder in a company not run by me, and over which I had no influence or control, was to ensure that any shares I held were above board and that I paid all relevant taxes in full. Every time I received any benefit from the company this happened." Shortly after Labour's defeat at the
2015 general election, it emerged that Hodge would not be standing for re-election to the Public Accounts Committee. She was succeeded as Chair in June 2015 by
Meg Hillier. Hodge has since written a book about her time as chair of the Public Accounts Committee entitled
Called to Account.
Garden Bridge Project review In September 2016, London Mayor
Sadiq Khan asked Hodge to review the
Garden Bridge project. Hodge was tasked with determining whether value for money was achieved from the taxpayers' £60 million contribution to the bridge, as well as investigating whether transparency standards were met by public bodies. Hodge's review was published in April 2017. Hodge recommended that 'It would be better for the taxpayer to accept the financial loss of cancelling the project than to risk the potential uncertain additional costs to the public purse if the project proceeds.' The report found that decisions on the Garden Bridge were driven more by electoral cycles than value for taxpayers' money, and that there was not an open, fair and competitive process around two procurements. In response, the BBC's transport correspondent, Tom Edwards, reported that 'I can't remember reading a report so damning of a transport project.' In June 2017,
Andrew Boff, a Conservative member of the London Assembly, criticised Margaret Hodge's report on the Garden Bridge, and claimed that she broke Parliamentary rules during her research. In December 2017, the
Parliamentary Standards Committee found that Hodge had breached the MPs' code of conduct. The code states MPs should use public resources only "in support of parliamentary duties". The committee ruled that, because the review had been commissioned by an outside body, it had not been carried out as part of Hodge's parliamentary activities. The committee recommended that Hodge apologise to the
House of Commons for the breach on a point of order. Hodge subsequently apologised and said "I carried out this inquiry in good faith and in the public interest. "I think all MPs would benefit from greater clarity in the rules governing the use of offices." Hodge later repaid £2.97, which represented the cost of House of Commons stationery, after the committee's report found that she should not have used Parliamentary resources for her review. In response to the findings of the Parliamentary Standards Committee's investigation, Andrew Boff said the committee's findings left "a sour taste", and claimed that he found it 'hard to believe [Hodge] was unaware of the rules."
Views At a keynote speech to the
Institute for Public Policy Research on 26 November 2004, Hodge defended the concept of greater
state regulation of individuals' choices, asserting only that "some may call it the
nanny state but I call it a force for good". On 17 November 2006, it was reported by the
Islington Tribune that Hodge described the
Iraq War as a "big mistake in foreign affairs". This report, relayed by
BBC News, appeared to cast doubt on Hodge's confidence in
Tony Blair's foreign policy since 1998. A Downing Street spokesperson responded by pointing out that "Margaret Hodge voted for military action in Iraq. Since then, she has always spoken in favour of it." In the
2015 Labour leadership election, she nominated
Liz Kendall. In June 2016, together with
Ann Coffey, Hodge called for a motion of no confidence in party leader
Jeremy Corbyn. The following month, she supported
Owen Smith in the
2016 Labour leadership election. Hodge identifies as a
Zionist.
Views on antisemitism in Labour In July 2018, the
National Executive Committee (NEC) adopted a code of conduct on antisemitism which was based on the
IHRA's
working definition while omitting or modifying examples of antisemitism, including defining how criticism of Israel can be antisemitic. Hodge subsequently said that Labour's refusal to adopt the full set of unamended examples for disciplinary purposes "make the party a hostile environment for Jews. It chose to entrench antisemitism ... This means that in 2018 a party member can call a Jew a Nazi and face little consequence." In contrast, a coalition of 36 international Jewish anti-Zionist groups signed a letter of opposition to the IHRA definition, calling it a "distorted definition of antisemitism to stifle criticism of Israel". Labour said all the examples were covered by other parts of the code. After the adoption of the new code, Hodge confronted Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn in parliament and called him "a fucking antisemite and a racist". The Party initiated a disciplinary investigation of the incident, with a spokesperson saying that "The rules of the Parliamentary Labour Party are quite clear, that colleagues have to treat each other with respect and not bring the party into disrepute and that is why action will be taken." The investigation was terminated following fears that MPs would resign had it continued. A Labour spokesperson said that Hodge "expressed regret" for her remarks: however, Hodge said that there were "no apologies, on either side". Hodge said that the prospect of an investigation had made her think about "what it felt like to be a Jew in
Germany in the 30s". Also in July 2018, she accepted an invitation to become an honorary patron of the
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). In the run-up to the
2019 general election, CAA asked her to resign because she was standing as a Labour Party candidate; she did so but described their decision as "both astonishing and wounding", showing a lack of respect and impugning her integrity. In March 2019, Hodge made a secret recording of a meeting she had with Corbyn. The recording was later passed to The
Sunday Times which published extracts. In the recording, Corbyn said that some evidence of complaints was being mislaid, ignored or not used, which was why he had asked
Lord Falconer to review the process. Corbyn later wrote to Hodge to convey his disappointment at what he considered "to be a total breach of trust and privacy". In the same month, she proposed that the party close down constituencies that passed motions critical of individual investigations or of the IHRA's Working Definition. In June 2019, Hodge condemned the reinstatement to Labour of
Chris Williamson, who had been investigated for comments he had made on antisemitism in the Labour Party. In July 2019, Hodge called for a new and entirely independent system to handle antisemitism disciplinary proceedings in the Labour party as, she said, political interference has corrupted the current system. The party rejected her claim as unfounded. She also stated that matters had only become worse since she confronted Corbyn a year before. In July 2019,
Charedi activist Shraga Stern filed a complaint with the Labour Party against Margaret Hodge after she tweeted about a meeting he had with Jeremy Corbyn which said "Having lunch & wondering why Corbyn wants to be seen talking to an anti-LGBT activist who doesn't represent the mainstream Jewish community yet chooses to sideline groups like Jewish Labour". No further public information was made available about the complaint process. In September 2019, Hodge said "I'm not going to give up until
Jeremy Corbyn ceases to be leader of the Labour Party." Hodge is a supporter of
Labour Friends of Israel.
Other events In 2004,
Fathers 4 Justice campaigner Jonathan Stanesby handcuffed Hodge, stating he was arresting her for child abuse. Fathers 4 Justice targeted Hodge perceiving her as the "bogeywoman of
family law, who doesn't even believe in equal parenting". Stanesby and collaborator Jason Hatch were
acquitted of the charge of
false imprisonment which they successfully defended as a reasonable form of political protest. In June 2019, the
TSSA conference passed a motion criticising Hodge for "endorsing tactical voting, including voting for candidates other than Labour" in the
2019 European Parliament election, pointing out that this was a breach of party rules and should result in automatic removal of membership. On 28 September 2019, Barking Labour members voted in a 'trigger ballot' to hold a full selection process to choose their parliamentary candidate for the next general election, rather than automatically reselecting Hodge. She said she wished to stand and was automatically included in an all woman shortlist. According to one local member, factors in the decision to hold a selection process included her age, the desire to have an MP who lives in the area and support for the principles of accountability and local democracy. On Monday 28 October 2019, Hodge was reselected. ==House of Lords==