Having worked previously with lead writer and executive producer Russell T Davies, Wilton was keen to involve herself with his 2005 revival of Doctor Who after he sought to cast her.

The Doctor tells Rose that Harriet is destined to be elected as Prime Minister for three successive terms and be the architect of a period known as Britain's "Golden Age".

With the aid of Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), Harriet amplifies the subwave signal broadcast from her own home, allowing the Doctor to return to Earth at the expense of her own location becoming visible to the Daleks.

[6] The 2017 poetry book Now We Are Six Hundred, written by James Goss and illustrated by Davies, includes a poem revealing that Harriet escaped from the Dalek attack.

Commenting on Jones's role in the two-part "Aliens of London"/"World War Three", Wilton characterised her as "straight as a die" and "the kind of caring politician that anyone would like to have.

[14] Davies wrote Harriet Jones into the script for the fourth series episode "The Stolen Earth" before Wilton was approached about reprising the role because Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson wished for the character to have a satisfying and redemptive conclusion.

[18] Radio Times reviewer Patrick Mulkern likened the character to Brigitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) in the Danish series Borgen, explaining that the two "form a very small club of politicians in TV drama who are hugely sympathetic, female and enjoy a rapid rise to PM".

[19] The Daily Telegraph's Hugh Davies commented on a number of political allusions made through Jones's characterisation as Prime Minister in "The Christmas Invasion".

Russell T Davies responded to observations of political commentary by stating that there is "absolutely an anti-war message" present in the episode due to Christmas being "a day of peace".

[20] In their unauthorised guide to Doctor Who, Graeme Burk and Robert Smith felt that Wilton delivered the "standout performance" of the Christmas special" stating that, whilst the character remained recognisable, it was "fascinating watching her harder edge emerge from the woman we know and love".

[24] Charlie Jane Anders of io9 placed the "glowing nobility" of Jones's sacrifice in "The Stolen Earth" as the most prominent of the "super-heroics" displayed by the returning characters in the episode.

Though tired of a running joke throughout the series where Jones would introduce herself only to be told "I know who you are", Anders remarks that in the face of her demise "she was able to turn her usual schtick into a moving speech of defiance.

[27] In March 2015 Dan Wilson of Metro listed Harriet as one of the ten best original characters introduced to Doctor Who since 2005, describing her as a "complex woman" who "came good in the end".