Career History
Margaret was a Labour councillor for 13 years and was the first woman leader of Lewisham Borough Council. She pioneered the use of new technologies in service delivery and local democracy and helped with the relocation of Millwall Football Club.
In local government she served as Deputy Chair of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities and Chair of its Housing Committee. In Lewisham she introduced the leading edge “Democracy Project”, using new technologies and led Lewisham’s successful city challenge urban regeneration schemes.
In 1997 she served as PPS to Transport Minister, Rt Hon Gavin Strang and later became PPS to Mo Mowlam.
She is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence, the Parliamentary Labour Housing Group and the Parliamentary Labour Party Parliamentary Affairs Committee and was Secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party Northern Ireland Committee. Margaret also founded Labour’s E-futures group and in May 2000 was awarded the Government Computing Information Age Innovator of the Year.
She was member of the Northern Ireland Select Committee and later a member of the Public Administration Select Committee. She is also a member of the All Party Small Business Group; Information Technology group (PITCOM), Kashmir Group and Children’s Group. She is also a member of the Hansard Society Commission on the Scrutiny of Parliament.
Margaret is chair of EURIM, the independent Parliament-Industry group for ICT.
