Dan Hodges

Daniel Pearce Jackson "Dan" Hodges (born 7 March 1969) is a British journalist, blogger and columnist. Since March 2016, he has written a weekly column for The Mail on Sunday.[1] Prior to this, he wrote regularly for The Daily Telegraph[2] and in 2013 was described by James Forsyth in The Spectator as David Cameron's "new favourite columnist".[3] A former member of the Labour Party, Hodges is known for his Blairite views and positions.

Biography

Hodges is the son of the retired Labour MP and former actress Glenda Jackson and her then husband Roy Hodges.[4] In the last twenty years, Hodges has worked as a parliamentary researcher, a Labour Party official, GMB official, and as director of communications for Transport for London under Ken Livingstone.

He has been a journalist and a blogger writing for The Guardian, the New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph, The Times and Labour Uncut. He supported Jon Cruddas in the 2007 deputy leadership election as a member of Compass, but has since been critical of the organisation.[5] He supported David Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership contest and was very critical of Ed Miliband. He also worked for the successful No to AV campaign in 2011.

Views

Hodges describes himself as a 'tribal neo-Blairite'.[6] He was a vocal critic of the former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, as well as the current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He quit the Labour Party of which he was a member for 27 years, but subsequently rejoined.

In May 2012, although he was then a long-standing member of the Labour Party, Hodges voted for the Conservative Boris Johnson in the London Mayoral elections, lauding him as a "unifying figure" over Ken Livingstone whom he saw as "divisive" and "a disgrace", adding that "London needs someone who can speak for all of London, not just the balkanized segments whose votes he craves". However, he still voted for Labour London Assembly candidates.[7]

In August 2013, Hodges expressed strong approval for David Cameron's administration ordering the border detention of David Miranda, the spouse of journalist Glenn Greenwald, under the Terrorism Act, who despite not being under suspicion of planning terrorist acts, was found to be carrying an external hard drive containing 58,000 highly classified UK intelligence documents, and whose detention was subsequently ruled lawful by the UK High Court, which accepted that Miranda's detention and the seizure of computer material was "an indirect interference with press freedom" but said this was justified by legitimate and "very pressing" interests of national security.[8]

Hodges expressed support for the government suppressing whistleblowers spreading "information highly detrimental to the UK national interest".[9] Following the House of Commons vote on 29 August 2013 against possible military involvement in the Syrian civil war, and objecting to Ed Miliband's conduct, Hodges left the Labour Party.[10]

In 2014, Hodges declared his support for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections because of party leader Nick Clegg's stand against UKIP but supported Labour for the local elections. He rejoined the Labour Party in July 2015.[11] Hodges supported Yvette Cooper for the Labour leadership but then resigned from the Labour Party a second time in December 2015 because of the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.[12]

In 2014, Hodges co-founded the Migration Matters Trust, a pro-immigration pressure group chaired by Barbara Roche, Lord Dholakia and Nadhim Zahawi and run by Atul Hatwal. Hodges is also a wargame designer. His first game design was Where There Is Discord: War in the South Atlantic which is about the Falklands War.[13]

In November 2015 Hodge's first book, One Minute To Ten, was published by Penguin Books. It focuses on the three party leaders Cameron, Miliband, and Clegg, and the effect the 2015 general election had on their lives.[14]

Personal life

Hodges married lobbyist Michelle di Leo in 2003, after meeting her at Labour Party Conference in 1999.[15] In February 1992 he lost his left eye trying to stop a fight in a bar.[16] He was a member of the Labour Party for 27 years (on and off).[17] He lives in Blackheath with his wife, children and mother.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "March of the Corbinators: Britain's best political columnist DAN HODGES joins the Mail on Sunday - and reveals Labour plot to ditch Corbyn". The Mail on Sunday.
  2. ↑ "Dan Hodges". Telegraph.co.uk.
  3. ↑ "The secret of David Cameron's Europe strategy: he doesn't have one". The Spectator.
  4. ↑ Ian Hall (28 February 2003). "Profile: Dan Hodges, Freedom To Fly". PR Week. prweek.com. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  5. ↑ "Dan Hodges warns Labour against the new pluralism « Labour Uncut". labour-uncut.co.uk.
  6. ↑ Dan Hodges: Keynote and motivational speaker, Chartwell Speakers Bureau
  7. ↑ Dan Hodges (30 April 2012). "Ken Livingstone is right: it's him or Boris Johnson. That's why I'm voting Boris". Daily Telegraph Blogs. The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  8. ↑ Travis,Alan; Taylor,Matthew; Wintour,Patrick (19 February 2014). "David Miranda detention at Heathrow airport was lawful, high court rules". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  9. ↑ Dan Hodges (20 August 2013). "Why does being a relative of Glenn Greenwald place you above the law". Daily Telegraph Blogs. The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  10. ↑ Dan Hodges "Miliband was governed by narrow political interests – not those of Syrian children. I have left the Labour Party", telegraph.co.uk, 30 August 2013
  11. ↑ Hodges, Dan (27 July 2015). "The only way Labour can win the next election is to elect Corbyn now". The Daily Telegraph.
  12. ↑ Hodges, Dan (15 December 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn has become the Left's Enoch Powell". The Daily Telegraph.
  13. ↑ "Confessions of a 'Grognard': why I am an unashamed board game geek". Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  14. ↑ Books, Penguin (28 October 2015). "One Minute To Ten". Penguin Books.
  15. ↑ "Flying Matters". planestupid.com.
  16. ↑ "Overview for Glenda Jackson". Turner Classic Movies.
  17. ↑ "Syria was the last straw – I've now quit the Labour Party". Telegraph.co.uk. 30 August 2013.
  18. ↑ Hodges, Dan (21 October 2014). "Ed Balls has just turned my house into a mansion. I'm not as happy about it as you might think". Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.

External links

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