Lady Hodge

Just found this really good site that is all about the Member of Parliament for Barking, Lady Hodge (nee Oppenheimer) commonly referred to as Margaret Hodge and what a mine of information it is.

However I see from a previous article that we have already dug up quite a bit of information on our Margaret, so let us use this article to refresh our memories.

Voting Record for Margaret Hodge

• 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 an investigation into the Iraq war.
• Voted for replacing Trident.
• Voted for equal gay rights.

Ok so what else do we know about Lady Margaret Hodge?

Well she is a "Civic British Citizen" having been born  in Egypt as Margaret Oppenhimer, the daughter of  German Jewish parents who made their millions as steel traders.  She picked the title "Lady" up from her 2nd marriage to High Court Judge Sir Henry Hodge who died in 2009.

Involved in 1990, in claims about sexual abuse of children in Islington, whilst she was Leader of Islington Council, she attempted to suppress information that she was ultimately responsible and attacked one of the victims as being "extremely disturbed".

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 accused Margaret Hodge of being ultimately responsible for the abuse that he suffered. Liz Davies 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.

With regards to the losses of jobs at MG Rover, this civic Briton suggested that they find employment at Tesco.  When you are a Lady Millionaire you tend to lose touch with reality.

Previous responses to the concerns of the indigenous British and their  increasing support for the BNP was to say that the  Labour Party should promote "very, very strongly the benefits of the new, rich multi-racial society".

She attends Wimbledon with free tickets provided by the BBC and is a major shareholder in the family steel trading company Stemcor, of which her brother Ralph Oppenheimer is the chairman.  The company was valued at £220 million in 2007 and the family worth then was £178 million.   One would have thought she could have afforded to pay for her own  Wimbledon tickets.

Despite her obvious wealth, this champagne socialist still managed to suck up expense claims totalling £223,849 to add to her basic salary of £64,766 giving this millionaire a total of £305,972 in 2008.

Expense Claims for 2009/2010 1st Quarter

I have said before that there is a difference between being "British"and "Civic British" and this shows nicely by the fact that in  2008 Lady Margaret Hodge was forced to admit that in five years, the Labour government had spend a  pitiful £230 on promoting England's St Georges Day and that her own
department had spent a paltry £116.  just £2 more than in 2007 and  absolutely nothing in the previous 3 years.

Any further information would be most welcome - with supporting links - and can be emailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it