Margaret Hodge

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Person.png Dame Margaret Hodge  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(tax avoider)
Margaret Hodge.jpg
BornMargaret Eve Oppenheimer
8 September 1944
Member ofLabour Friends of Israel

Dame Margaret Hodge (born 8 September 1944) is a British Labour politician, who has served as Member of Parliament for Barking since 1994.

Hodge was appointed Minister for Children in 2003 before becoming Minister of State for Culture and Tourism in 2005. On 9 June 2010 she was elected Chair of the influential Public Accounts Committee, in succession to Sir Edward Leigh MP.[1]

Née Oppenheimer

Born Margaret Eve Oppenheimer,[2] she was known as Margaret Eve Watson from 1968 to 1978. She was styled Lady Hodge after her second husband, Sir Henry Hodge, was knighted in 2004. Upon her appointment as DBE in 2015 she became Dame Margaret Hodge.

Tax avoider

In May 2013, it was revealed that Margaret Hodge is an offshore tax avoider. She has a shareholding in Stemcor – which paid just 0.01% tax in 2012. Hodge claimed in a grilling, by Channel 4's Michael Crick, that she just had a small shareholding in the company run by her brother who is an offshore tax avoider.

However it turns out that her shareholding is 1.26% of the company. That would mean that she would have been paid out £56,939 in dividends last year. Her shareholding is now worth £1.8m. That’s hardly a tiny, tiny amount as she claimed.

Stemcor have confirmed that it doesn’t even include shareholdings in her children’s names. It turns out that she owns several million pounds worth of shares when you include her children’s shareholdings. They will now pay no inheritance tax on it.

She was asked to explain what other purpose that there could be other than avoiding tax for her share in the trust? She hadn’t replied so far.[3]

Corbyn plotter

In May 2016, Hodge was reported to be plotting against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The plot, revealed by the Sun newspaper, could happen if a fifth of the Parliamentary Labour Party back her challenge. One MP told the paper:

"Margaret is our perfect candidate - she has a lot of gravitas but is also expendable. She is weighing it all up now but we think she sees it as her duty and will do it."

It is thought her respect among the Jewish community could allow her to make a principled stand on Labour's ongoing anti-Semitism crisis (Labour has secretly suspended 50 of its members over anti-Semitic and racist comments as officials struggle to cope with the crisis engulfing the party.) However, any coup against Corbyn will not happen before the 23 June 2016 EU Referendum so as not to damage the party's pro-EU efforts.[4]

Right on cue on 24 June 2016, immediately after the referendum victory for the Leave campaign, Margaret Hodge tabled a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn as party leader after he failed to convince voters to back Remain. Fellow sponsor of the motion, Angela Smith, accused him of lacking commitment to the campaign. She said:

"Jeremy Corbyn needs to bear his share of the responsibility for the way in which he led the EU referendum campaign from a Labour perspective. He really ought to consider his position."[5]

References


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