Margaret Hodge MP - Chair, Public Accounts Committee
Margaret Hodge has been the Member of Parliament for Barking since 1994 and is currently chair of the Public Accounts Committee.
Margaret began her political career as a councillor in the London Borough of Islington in 1973. She has been member for Barking since a by-election on 9 June 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. She became a junior minister in 1998 and was made Minister for Universities in 2001, where she remained until 2003 when she was made Children's Minister. In 2005 she was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions with responsibility for Work, before becoming Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in June 2007.
Hodge retained her seat at the May 2010 general election, doubling her majority to over 16,000, following a high profile campaign against the BNP which saw Nick Griffin come third behind the Conservatives, and his party lose all 12 of its seats on Barking and Dagenham Council. On 9 June 2010 she was elected Chair of the hugely influential Public Accounts Committee.
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