Meg Hillier MP
Chair of the Public Accounts Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 June 2015
Preceded by	Margaret Hodge
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
In office 8 October 2010 – 7 October 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Ed Miliband
Succeeded by	Caroline Flint
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Identity
In office 28 June 2007 – 12 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Joan Ryan (Under-Secretary of State for Nationality, Citizenship and Immigration)
Succeeded by	Damian Green (Minister of State for Immigration)
Member of Parliament for Hackney South and Shoreditch
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Brian Sedgemore
Majority	37,931 (68.5%)
Member of the London Assembly for North East
In office 4 May 2000 – 10 June 2004
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Jennette Arnold
Mayor of Islington
In office May 1998 – May 1999
Preceded by	Rupert Perry
Succeeded by	Jenny Sands
Islington Borough Councillor for Sussex Ward
In office 5 May 1994 – 2 May 2002
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	(1969-02-14) 14 February 1969 (age 49) Hampstead, London, England
Political party	Labour Co-operative
Spouse(s)	Joe Simpson
Children	3
Alma mater	St Hilda's College, Oxford

Margaret Olivia Hillier (born 14 February 1969) is a British Labour Co-operative politician who was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney South and Shoreditch at the 2005 general election, and was a junior government minister (2007–10) and was succeeded by Caroline Flint as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the Labour Party October 2011 reshuffle.^[2]

Early life and career[edit]

Hillier was educated at Portsmouth High School, a private school for girls in Southsea, Hampshire, followed by St Hilda's College at the University of Oxford, where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics and during her time there; was elected Librarian of the Oxford Union Society.^{[citation needed]}

Hillier worked as a journalist and was elected as a Councillor in the London Borough of Islington in 1994, serving as the Mayor of Islington in 1998, before standing down from the Council in 2002. She was elected as a founding Member of the London Assembly for North East London at the first London Assembly election of 2000, she served on the Assembly until 2004, and was a board member of Transport for London until she was elected to Parliament.^{[citation needed]}

Parliamentary career[edit]

In 2004, Hillier was selected as the Labour candidate to contest the Hackney South and Shoreditch through an all-women shortlist.^[3] She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election following the retirement of the Labour MP Brian Sedgemore.

During the election campaign, Sedgemore resigned from Labour and joined the Liberal Democrats^[4] in protest at the attack on Iraq. Hillier retained the safe seat with a majority of more than 10,000 votes. She made her maiden speech on 24 May 2005, noting there were more men in the House of Commons that day than there had ever been women MPs.^[5]

She served as member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee for a year until she was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Ruth Kelly in 2006. In June 2007, she was appointed a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office.

During maternity leave beginning in March 2009, her ministerial role was taken over by Shahid Malik. In March 2008, Hillier voted with the Government in favour of nationwide Post Office closures, including seven in Hackney, of which her constituency forms a part.^[6]

In December 2009, while promoting the unpopular National Identity Card scheme as Identity Minister^[7][8] in Liverpool, she admitted she had forgotten her own ID card,^[9][10] attributing the error to the demands of looking after her baby.^[11][12]

In June 2015, Hillier was elected Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in succession to Margaret Hodge.^[13] She was, as a result, among the 100 most influential people in the NHS according to the Health Service Journal in 2016.^[14] As chair, she has been critical of the Troubled Families programme, saying that the PAC's conclusions on the programme were "far more serious" than "a slap on the wrist" for ministers.^[15]

Hillier has served Trustee of the War Memorials Trust since 2001.^[16]

Personal life[edit]

Meg Hillier married Joe Simpson in 1997; the couple have three children.^[17][18]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Meg Hillier MP official website


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  Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
  


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  Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 2010–present
  


• Contributions in Parliament during 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 at Hansard Archives
  


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  Voting record at Public Whip
  


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  Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
  


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  Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record


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  Articles authored at Journalisted
  


• Debrett's People of Today