Known for her tenure as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Wolverhampton North East constituency in the British House of Commons. She was elected to that post during the May 2010 general elections. She graduated from Wadham College at Oxford University with her degree in politics, philosophy, and economics. Subsequently, between 2001 and 2004, she worked as a political advisor to Robin Cook, who was the then-head of the Party of European Socialists, in Brussels, Belgium.