She worked as an administrative assistant, then for the secretariat of the Socialist Group, also spending time as an editor, a courier and a guide.

She founded the first ever European Car Industry Forum with the EU Commission and participation of all relevant stakeholders i.e. trades unions.

[2] One of its recommendations led to the establishment of Objective 5 of the European Social Fund designed to assist in the re-training of workers threatened with redundancy.

In 1997, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed her to liaise between the European Parliamentary Labour Party and the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

She has an extensive record of public service and campaigning in the areas of audiovisual and cultural diversity of expressions; media plurality; anti-discrimination; equality.

In 2015, she founded and chaired Creatives4Europe, an organisation representing all branches of the creative industries/arts and culture (under the auspices of the European Movement) to campaign for a Remain vote in the 2016 EU membership referendum.

Along with prominent Labour Party members disillusioned with the Eurosceptic stance of the Corbyn leadership, she decided to stand for Change UK in the 2019 European Elections.

2001-2011 Visiting Lecturer/Professor in European Audiovisual Policy and British and European Politics at London's University of the Arts 2008-2010 Visiting Lecturer at City University, London, on Cultural Diversity, Arts and Media In the 1990s, Tongue campaigned for an EU Protocol to protect public service broadcasting.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), a member of the BECTU trade union.