Margaret Eve Hodge (née Oppenheimer, a.k.a. Dame Margaret), a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Barking in Greater London, was re-selected on Monday by her local party constituents to run for her own seat.
She tweeted a picture of herself and her supporters with the headline: Victory!
Victory! pic.twitter.com/68HYQqCqpC
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge)
In June 2016, together with MP Ann Coffey, Hodge called for a motion of no confidence in party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and shortly thereafter supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.
In July 2018, after Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had adopted a code of conduct on anti-Semitism which said criticism of Israel is not a form of anti-Semitism, Hodge said that “this means that in 2018 a party member can call a Jew a Nazi and face little consequence.”
She confronted Corbyn in parliament and called him “a [expletive] anti-Semite and a racist.” When the party launched an investigation of her conduct, Hodge said the prospect of her being investigated made her think about “what it felt like to be a Jew in Germany in the ’30s.” The investigation was dropped.
In July 2019, Hodge called for a new, independent system to handle anti-Semitism disciplinary proceedings in the Labour party, which the party rejected. She blamed her confrontation with Corbyn on that rejection, and in September 2019 she declared: “I’m not going to give up until Jeremy Corbyn ceases to be leader of the Labour Party.”
Best of luck to the wonderful Margaret Hodge ahead of ’s vote tomorrow! She’s a fantastic Parliamentarian and a fearless campaigner who fought off the BNP in Barking. pic.twitter.com/IZeg2pyehF
— Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour)
The powers that be responded, and Dame Margaret was “triggered” through Labour’s new ballot procedures which encourage local members to challenge the incumbent MP. But, apparently, the move failed.
In response, after the win, MP Ruth Smeeth, the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, demanded to enter into the record her statement that went: “I just want to put on record the fact that Margaret Hodge, the honorable member for Barking, has been re-selected this evening, against an appalling attack by members of our party, and I am delighted she remains a Labour candidate at the next general election.”
The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour (King James, Esther 8:16).