Dame Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP and prominent critic of Jeremy Corbyn, has been reselected by her local party to run again for the east London seat of Barking.
A reselection contest was triggered last month in the constituency of the veteran MP, who has led criticism of the party’s handling of antisemitism among members.
On Monday night, she tweeted a picture of herself surrounded by colleagues, with a one-word message: “Victory!”
Victory! pic.twitter.com/68HYQqCqpC
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) October 28, 2019
Her fellow Labour backbencher Ruth Smeeth raised a point of order in the House of Commons on Monday to announce that Hodge had been reselected.
Smeeth, the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: “I just want to put on record the fact that Margaret Hodge, the honourable (member) for Barking, has been reselected 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 move by activists to trigger her reselection was described last month by the Jewish Labour Movement as a shameful moment for the party, while Labour’s former deputy leader, Harriet Harman, said she was “dismayed more than I can say”.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews congratulated Hodge on her “emphatic reselection”, adding in a statement: “Trolls who opposed her reckoned without Margaret’s strength and popularity. Not lost on anyone that Labour’s so-called ‘anti-racist’ leader missing in action as his drones tried to force out another Jewish MP.”
Hodge’s reselection was also welcomed on Tuesday morning by the Labour MP for Ilford North, Wes Streeting, who tweeted: “It is disappointing that ideological dogma and, worse still, self-interested personal ambition from some quarters, saw her triggered in the first place.”
Hodge, a former minister and chair of the public accounts committee, saw off a challenge to her seat in 2010 by the far-right British National party at a time when it had been forecast to make gains.
She was the second Labour MP to be “triggered” through the party’s new ballot procedures that make it easier for local members to force a contest.
Diana Johnson was reselected last week as the party’s parliamentary candidate for Kingston upon Hull North.
