This is a shame – Margaret Hodge was good at her job, even if she did attract (unwarranted) criticism on some occasions.

Of the possibles, the last person to take the chair should be Gisela Stuart. She’s the idiot who proposed a “grand coalition” with the Conservative Party, thereby providing a wealth of ammunition for Labour’s enemies, including most prominently the SNP. Notice that word “moderniser” again, which is political code for “Plastic Tory”.

Of the others, Meg Hillier might seem a logical choice – but look, she’s another Plastic Tory. Educated at a fee-paying school and then on the PPE course at Oxford that also produced David Cameron. No thanks!

It would be much better if we had a real human being in the role. Would somebody from the Left of the Labour Party please step up?

The position traditionally goes to a longstanding MP in the main opposition party. Names in circulation include Meg Hillier, who was a member of the committee under Hodge; John Healey, the popular former housing minister; Helen Goodman, the shadow minister for welfare reform under Ed Miliband; and Gisela Stuart, a party moderniser who called for a grand coalition with the Tories in the event of a hung parliament.

Source: Margaret Hodge stands aside as head of spending watchdog | Politics | The Guardian