Margaret Hodge was first elected as the Labour Party MP for Barking after a 1994 by-election being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 15,427.
The constituency of Barking is located on the north banks of the Thames in East London. It includes the centre of Barking and the Becontree estate, which for many years has been said to be the largest council housing estate in England. This is a deprived and now ethnically diverse constituency where a fifth of the electorate is black, and there is also a sizeable Asian community. Barking experiences some of the highest levels of unemployment in England. The area has been represented by Labour in Parliament ever since the Second World War, and remains an extremely a safe Labour seat. In the last decade or so, this is the area of the UK where the British National Party have obtained their highest levels of support, polling 17% in 2005 and 15% in 2010. Three fifths of voters backed Leave in the 2016 EU referendum.
Hodge served in the lower ranks of the Blair and Brown government between 1998 and 2010, variously as Minister for Children, Minister for Universities, and Minister of State for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism.
She has announced that she plans to step down from Parliament at the next General Election.
Between 2010 and 2015, Hodge was Chair of the powerful Commons Public Accounts Select Committee. She was made a Dame in 2015.
Born in 1944, Hodge was educated at the London School of Economics. She worked as a consultant for Price Waterhouse before becoming an MP.
Prior to entering Westminster, Hodge was also the high profile Labour Leader of Islington Council in the 1990s.
Hodge was highly critical of Jeremy Corbyn during his time as Labour leader and in particular of the party’s problems with antisemitism. She survived an attempt to deselect her as a Labour MP in 2019. She backed Jess Phillips in the 2020 Labour leadership election.
Margaret Hodge is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax. She is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on War Crimes; and Antisemitism.
Hodge is Chair of Royal Holloway’s College Council, at the University of London.
Email: hodgem@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://margaret-hodge.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/margarethodge
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Margaret-Hodge
