Dan Hodges

Daniel Pearce Jackson Hodges (born 7 March 1969) is a British newspaper columnist. Since March 2016, he has written a weekly column for The Mail on Sunday. Prior to this, he was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and in 2013 was described by James Forsyth in The Spectator as David Cameron's "new favourite columnist". Early life Born in Lewisham, Hodges is the son of the actress and former Labour MP Glenda Jackson and her then-husband Roy Hodges, a repertory company stage-manager and actor. He was educated at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk, Lancashire, where he studied English Literature and Communications between 1987 and 1990. He worked as a parliamentary researcher for his mother between 1992 and 1997, describing it as 'straight-forward nepotism', before working in public relations for the Road Haulage Association, GMB and the Freedom To Fly lobby group. He worked briefly as Head of Communications at the London Development Agency and as Director of News for Transport for London in 2007, which he left after less than a year after mocking a contractor to the press. He subsequently led the campaign to introduce a congestion charge for Greater Manchester, which was overwhelmingly rejected in local referendums. Journalism Hodges has worked as a journalist and blogger, writing in a freelance capacity for the New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph and The Mail on Sunday. He worked for the successful No to AV campaign in 2011, but attracted controversy for a provocative anti-AV poster that suggested electoral reform might lead to the deaths of newborn babies. In 2017, Hodges won the Political Commentator of the Year Award at The Comment Awards.