Education
London School of Economics.
politician Member of the House of Lords
London School of Economics.
She was previously Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health. A graduate of the London School of Economics, Thornton was Political Secretary of the Royal Arsenal Company-operative Society from 1981, joining the public affairs team of the Company-operative Wholesale Society upon their merger in 1985 and working there until 1992. She was General Secretary of the Fabian Society from 1993 to 1996.
On 23 July 1998 she was created a Life peer as Baroness Thornton, of Manningham in the County of West Yorkshire.
She chaired the Social Enterprise Coalition until January 2008, when she was appointed a junior minister of the House of Lords. In September 2007, she was made chair of the advisory group that trains public sector staff to work with the voluntary sector.
In May 2012, her role in Labour was moved from health to equalities, with her role on the health portfolio being taken over by Lord Hunt. She was reported to be claiming £22,000 a year in expenses by saying that her mother"s bungalow in Yorkshire is her main home, amounting to around £130,000 since 2002.
She was later cleared of any wrongdoing by Michael Pownall, the Clerk of Parliaments, after it was determined that she spent much of her time there while caring for her mother.