Hodge: it took Corbyn to make me ‘Jewish’

She also paid tribute to her female colleagues in parliament, “particularly the Jewish women in the Labour Party who stood up to be counted in the battle about antisemitism.”

She caused laughter when she confessed she never expected her Jewish identity would become “central” to her politics.

“My dad tried to make me Jewish and failed, the local rabbi tried to make me Jewish and failed, my Jewish friends tried to make me Jewish and failed. It took the Leader of the Labour Party to do that,” she said.

“But of course I’m Jewish so I haven’t got a sense of irony,” she added, a reference to Mr Corbyn’s unearthed claim that Zionists lack “English irony”.

During the speech given as part of the Commons debate in April, for which she received the award, Dame Margaret described how she had joined the Labour Party in the 1960s because it stood up for minorities and against racism.