Born in Peterborough,[1] Hodge was educated at Chigwell School and read law at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1965.

He then joined the Child Poverty Action Group, working as its solicitor and deputy director until 1977.

Hodge then became a Councillor in the London Borough of Islington, where he met his second wife, Margaret Watson (née Oppenheimer).

Hodge was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the Social Security Advisory Committee in the 1993 Birthday Honours,[4] and was knighted in 2004.

[1][2] Having suffered a series of heart problems from 2007 which had required regular hospitalisation,[5] Hodge was diagnosed with Acute myeloid leukaemia in September 2008, which after four sessions of chemotherapy was followed by a bone marrow transplant in February 2009.