She was elected to Wandsworth Council in 1986 to represent Shaftesbury ward, and was Leader of the Labour Group from 1988 to 1990, when she lost her seat. From 1992 to 1997, she was a lecturer in Primary Education at the Institute of Education and Chair of Liberty, the civil liberties rights pressure group. While a primary school teacher, she decided to become an MP, as being able to change the world "thirty kids at a time" seemed too slow for her. She is a feminist.