Margaret Hodge - Islington Council

Islington Council

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

Hodge 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 (e.g. 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 Tony Blair's time as prime minister.

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 nicknamed "Enver Hodge", after the Albanian despot, Enver Hoxha ("Hoxha" is pronounced similarly to "Hodge": "Hodge-a"). 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.

Hodge was appointed MBE in 1978. However, 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.