Margaret Hodge

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The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP
Member of Parliament
for Barking
Incumbent
Assumed office 
9 June 1994
Preceded by Jo Richardson
Born 8 September 1944 (1944-09-08) (age 63)
Cairo[1], Egypt
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Spouse Sir Henry Hodge
Alma mater London School of Economics

The Right Honourable [4] Margaret Eve, Lady Hodge, MBE (née Margaret Oppenheimer; born 8 September 1944, Cairo[2]) is a British politician and Labour Party Member of Parliament for Barking. She was the first Minister for Children appointed in a newly created post within the Department for Education and Skills in 2001 . She is presently a Minister of State in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

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[edit] Family

Margaret Hodge was born in Egypt as Margaret Oppenheimer, the daughter of a refugee millionaire German Jewish steel trader and his Austrian Jewish wife.[5] [6]. After World War II, her family settled in London. Her mother died when Margaret was 10. She was educated at Bromley High School and the London School of Economics where she took a third class degree.

After divorcing her first husband (Watson), she married Henry Hodge (later Sir Henry). At the time, Henry Hodge was a fellow Labour borough councillor and Chairman of the National Council for Civil Liberties. He was a solicitor, but took up a judicial career, being appointed a recorder in 1993, then a circuit judge in 1999, and becoming only the third solicitor to sit as a High Court judge in England and Wales in August 2004.

She has four children and one grandchild[3].

[edit] Islington Council

Hodge was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Islington in 1973. She was associated with a group of newly elected, activist, largely middle-class councillors who were viewed with varying degrees of antagonism by some established Labour Party councillors.

She rapidly became Chairman of the Housing Committee (opting to use "chairman" rather than "chair"). This was a critical post in an authority with one of the worst sets of housing statistics in London and in a period when London Boroughs were expected to be housing providers and managers. Hodge's tenure as Housing Chairman saw the continuation of a large new housing programme. There was a change of emphasis to the refurbishment of sound, older buildings (eg, Charteris Road, Alexander Road areas), in response to a paper published by the local Islington Housing Action Group.

At one point, Hodge's deputy chairman was Jack Straw, subsequently a Cabinet member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's administrations.

The Islington Labour Parties were badly affected by the defection of members and elected public representatives to the Social Democratic Party but, when the dust had settled, Hodge had emerged as council leader, in 1982, a post which she held until 1992. During her 10 years as leader of Islington Council] she was referred to as "Enver Hodge", after the Albanian despot, Enver Hoxha[4] ('Hoxha' is pronounced similarly to 'Hodge'). She had become the focus of antagonism from "old-guard", former Labour Party members who felt that their party had been "taken over" by middle-class incomers.

The end of her period at Islington, before taking up her Parliamentary career, was marred by criticism of her response (in 1985) to serious child abuse allegations.

[edit] Child abuse controversy

In 1985, Demetrious Panton complained about abuse that he had suffered while in the council's care in the 70s and 80s. He did not receive an official reply until 1989, in which the council denied responsibility.[5]

In 1990 Liz Davies, a senior social worker employed by the borough and her manager David Cofie, raised concerns about sexual abuse of children in Islington Council Care. Correspondence between Hodge and the Director of Social Work indicates that she declined a request for extra resources to investigate. In early 1992 Liz Davies resigned from her post and requested that Scotland Yard investigate the allegations. The Evening Standard then began reporting on the allegations of abuse in Islingtons children's homes, shortly after which Hodge resigned to pursue a career with Price Waterhouse. In 1995, the White Report into sexual abuse in Islington Care homes reported that the council had failed to adequately investigate the allegations.

In 2003, following Hodge's appointment as Minister for Children, Demetrious Panton went public with his allegation that he was abused in Islington Council care and had repeatedly raised this issue with no effect. He holds Margaret Hodge ultimately responsible for the abuse that he suffered. Liz Davies, not to be confused with the barrister and former Islington councillor, also went public with the issues that she had raised concerns about while working for the council.

Following a media campaign conducted by several national newspapers calling for her to resign from her new post, she responded to Panton by letter, in which she referred to him as 'extremely disturbed'. Panton then passed the letter to the press which planned to publish it, only to be judicially restrained from doing so at the instruction of Hodge. The letter was eventually published, mainly on the grounds that the blocking of the letter was seen as disproportionate. Hodge was forced to publicly apologise and offered to contribute to a charity of the man's choosing as recompense. This effectively ended the affair in the eyes of the press, although the affair remains a blot on her political record.

[edit] Parliamentary career

Hodge has been member for Barking since a by-election on June 9, 1994 caused by the death of Jo Richardson. As a new MP, she co-nominated the candidature of Tony Blair, a former neighbour, to be the new leader of the Labour Party[6] after the unexpected death of John Smith.

She became a junior minister in 1998 and was made Minister for Universities in 2001, and remained there until 2003 when she was made Children's Minister.

[edit] First Children's Minister and after

Hodge was the first person to be Children's Minister when the post was created in 2003 but suffered difficulties after the Islington controversy; her resignation was called for on several occasions by the press and parliamentary opposition.

She has since been transferred to less visible posts. Usually viewed as a strong supporter of Tony Blair, she appears to retain his support despite the hostility of the press, the opposition and (it is rumoured) a number of her parliamentary colleagues.

Privacy International awarded Margaret Hodge the 2004 Big Brother Award for "Worst Public Servant" for her backing of controversial initiatives including the Universal Child Database. At a keynote speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research on 26 November 2004, Hodge strongly defended the idea of greater state regulation of individuals' choices, stating that "some may call it the nanny state but I call it a force for good".

In the same year Father's 4 Jsutice campaigner Jonathan Stanesby handcuffed Hodge, stating he was arresting her for child abuse.[7] Fathers 4 Justice targeted Hodge because she was the "bogeywoman of family law, who doesn't even believe in equal parenting".[8] Standesby and colleague Jason Hatch were later cleared of a charge false imprisonment, with the court accepting it waspart of a reasonable political protest[9]

In 2005 she was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Work & Pensions with responsibility for Work.

On June 17, 2005 she allegedly said that the former workers of MG Rover would be able to obtain jobs at Tesco, a local supermarket. Later, she claimed that she did not say this, rather that she had empathy for those losing their jobs, and pointed to a new Tesco supermarket as an example of new jobs being created in the face of the redundancies at the car manufacturing plant.

[edit] Hodge and the BNP

In April 2006 she commented in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph that eight out of ten white working class voters in her constituency may be tempted to vote for the British National Party (BNP) in the May 4 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". [7]

She was strongly criticised for giving the BNP publicity in the local election campaign, which combined with heavy media coverage, and led to the BNP delivering a bouquet of roses to her office to thank her for her contribution to their cause: the election resulted in an almost clean sweep for the BNP in the seats where they stood, winning 12 of the 13 seats in Barking [8]. Whilst this was far short of the Labour party total, it was clear from their performance that the BNP could have won many more seats had they stood a full slate of candidates. Local Labour activists blamed Hodge, and it was reported that moves were underway to deselect her.[9]

Despite this she was appointed to a post at the Department of Trade and Industry in the Cabinet reshuffle of May 2006.

More recently, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, accused Hodge of "magnifying the propaganda of the British National Party" after she said that British residents should get priority in council house allocation.[10]

[edit] Minister of State for Industry and the Regions

On 24 May 2006 the GMB Union wrote to Margaret Hodge asking her to resign "... because of Margaret Hodge giving so much publicity to the BNP which allowed them to win a large number of seats...".

October 2006 saw a flurry of negative coverage of Margaret Hodge's ministerial activities, especially regarding the Companies Bill. This led the Financial Times to write in a leading article that the DTI "should not have responsibility for business".

[edit] Remarks on Tony Blair's foreign policy

On 17 November 2006 it was reported in the Islington Tribune that she described the Iraq war as a "big mistake in foreign affairs". Allegedly she also said that she was worried as far back as 1998 about Tony Blair's 'moral imperialism'. She apparently made these remarks at a Fabian Society event dinner in North London.

[edit] Housing policy

In an article for The Observer on 20 May 2007[10] Hodge argued that established families should take priority in the allocation of social housing over new economic migrants. These comments were condemned by the Refugee Council and other bodies working in this field.[11].

[edit] Voting Record

How Margaret Hodge voted on key issues since 2001 (They Work For You):

  • Has never voted on a transparent Parliament.
  • Voted for introducing a smoking ban.
  • Voted for introducing ID cards.
  • Voted for introducing foundation hospitals.
  • Voted for introducing student top-up fees.
  • Voted for Labour's anti-terrorism laws.
  • Voted for the Iraq war.
  • Voted against investigating the Iraq war.
  • Voted for replacing Trident.
  • Voted for the hunting ban.
  • Voted for equal gay rights.

[edit] Gordon Brown's Government

On 27 June 2007, she was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown[12]. In this role she has criticised the UK's foremost classical music festival, the Proms, for being insufficiently inclusive, instead praising television shows such as "Coronation Street".[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Guardian, November 21, 2003
  2. ^ Guardian, November 21, 2003
  3. ^ DTI website
  4. ^ [1], [2], The Daily Telegraph
  5. ^ [3] The Guardian
  6. ^ Sarah Hall "The Guardian profile: Margaret Hodge", The Guardian, 21 November 2003. Retrieved on 21 May 2007
  7. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7010959.stm
  8. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2004/11/19/handcuffed-minister041119.html
  9. ^ http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1018440_handcuff_protesters_cleared
  10. ^ Margaret Hodge "A message to my fellow immigrants", The Observer, 20 May 2007. Retrieved on 20 May 2007.
  11. ^ Press Association "Call for migrant housing rethink", as reproduced on The Guardian website. Retrieved on 20 May 2007.
  12. ^ List of Her Majesty's Government.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Jo Richardson		 Member of Parliament for Barking
1994 – present		 Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by
David Lammy
Minister for Culture		 Minister for Culture , Creative Industries and Tourism
2007 – present		 Incumbent