Margaret Olivia Hillier is a British Labour Company-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hackney South and Shoreditch since the 2005 general election, and was a junior government minister and was succeeded by Caroline Flint as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the Labour Party October 2011 reshuffle.
Education
Hillier was educated at Portsmouth High School, an independent fee-paying school for girls in Southsea, Hampshire, followed by Street 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.
Career
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. In 2004 Hillier was selected as the Labour candidate to contest the Hackney South and Shoreditch through a controversial all-women shortlist. She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election following the retirement of the Labour Member of Parliament Brian Sedgemore.
She managed to keep the seat comfortably with a majority of more than 10,000 votes, despite being a safe Labour seat.
Hillier made 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. 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.
In December 2009, while promoting the unpopular National Identity Card scheme as Identity Minister in Liverpool, she admitted she had forgotten her own Idaho card, attributing the error to the demands of looking after her baby.
In June 2015 Hillier was elected Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in succession to Margaret Hodge. Hillier has served Trustee of the War Memorials Trust since 2001.
Politics
During the election campaign Sedgemore resigned from Labour and joined the Liberal Democrats in protest at the attack on Iraq.
Membership
54th United Kingdom Parliament. 55th United Kingdom Parliament. 56th United Kingdom Parliament]
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 serve to in Parliament.
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.