Career
She was a Preston Borough Councillor 1973-6 and in 1977 she was elected to Lancashire County Council and held several senior positions, including chair of the Education Committee. She acted as an international observer at local elections in Poland, Ukraine and Albania. Farrington was the Labour candidate at the 1983 general election for the constituency of West Lancashire, and stood for the party again at the Ribble Valley by-election, 1991.
On 29 September 1994, she was created a life peer as Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton, of Fulwood in the County of Lancashire. She was a government spokesperson in the Lords for various areas between 1997 and 2010.