[3] Cavendish was educated at Putney High School and graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford[4] in 1989 with a first-class degree in philosophy, politics and economics.

[8][9] From May 2015 to July 2016, Cavendish was head of the prime minister's policy unit at No10 Downing Street in succession to Jo Johnson.

[5][10] Amongst initiatives, Cavendish is credited with persuading the prime Minister and his chancellor about the benefits of a sugar tax; she said that the "link between sugary drinks and obesity are clear and stark".

The campaign convinced the Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw to introduce legislation which opened the family courts to the media in 2009.

[22] In 2013, Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, asked Camilla Cavendish to lead "An Independent Review into Healthcare Assistants and Support Workers in the NHS and social care settings".

[25] She was nominated for a life peerage as part of David Cameron's Resignation Honours and was created Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice, of Mells in the County of Somerset, on 6 September 2016.

[26][27] After gaining an unidentified post that required her to sever any party links, she resigned the Conservative whip in December 2016 to sit in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated peer.