She was a teacher at the inner-city Sidney Stringer school in Coventry and was a member of Warwick District Council from 1979 to 1991. She was elected to Parliament in 1992. She became a minister in the Department for Education and Employment in 1997 and was promoted to Secretary of State for Education and Skills in 2001.
She quit her job in 2002, explaining that she didn't feel up to it. She rejoined the goverment in 2003 as a junior minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.