Battleaxe

A Memoir

Born in Alexandria in 1944 to Jewish parents from Germany and Austria, Margaret arrived in England aged four stateless, foreign, and an outsider. Those origins shaped everything. Her grandmother was murdered by the Nazis. Her grandfather was greeted as an enemy alien and then interned on British soil. Anti-racism was written into Hodge’s DNA.

So was the instinct to battle back.

Over more than fifty years as an elected representative councillor, council leader, MP and minister she fought on every front. Against the old guard of the Labour right and the bullying hard left. Against Margaret Thatcher’s assault on local government. Against the BNP, when Nick Griffin came to Barking to take her seat. Against Jeremy Corbyn and the antisemitism that infected her beloved party. And against the oligarchs, tax avoiders, money launderers and kleptocrats who have used Britain as their pla