Ms Hodge, who has held the position for eight weeks, told the Daily Telegraph:

"I recognise that across my portfolio there is some unease at the fact that there's been a new minister and it's up to me to prove myself."

But she insisted she has a "very good understanding" of small business, because her father ran his own steel business when the family arrived in the UK as Jewish refugees from Germany.

She added:

"My early memories as a kid, my dad set up a business when we first moved to the UK, are of me, aged six, seven or eight, going to help him work out the PAYE on people."

Read the full interview here.