The daughter of Reginald and Bertha Watts, she was born in Cromer, Norfolk, and spent her early years in Mundesley on Sea, her father being a haulier with a small garage.

She was educated at North Walsham Girls' High School and St Hilda's College, Oxford,[2] where she graduated with an MA in Modern Languages.

She has two stepsons, including econometrician Neil Shephard FBA, Professor of Economics and Statistics at Harvard University.

[citation needed] After the 1992 general election, she was appointed Secretary of State for Employment,[1] then Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1993.

[7] In 2013 following the death of Margaret Thatcher, Shephard published a memoir, The Real Iron Lady, of her time working with the former prime minister.

[11] She was Deputy Chair of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission[12] until 2017, when she resigned in frustration with Prime Minister Theresa May's lack of action.