[1] Her father, Tom Anderson, was an agent for the Labour Party; her mother was an organist in their local Methodist church.

[4] In 1974, she became the personal assistant to the MP for Blackburn, Barbara Castle,[2] and to her successor Jack Straw[5] until the 1987 General Election, when she unsuccessfully fought the marginal seat of Rossendale and Darwen, losing to David Trippier by 4,982 votes.

[10] Anderson later insisted that she did not mean it literally, and that her comment was intended to convey that women would have the "freedom to stay at home or have a career...it wasn't about sex or promiscuity.

[13] Following the 1997 General Election, Anderson became a junior whip, and Vice-Chamberlain of the Household in Tony Blair's new government, before being promoted to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 1998,[14] where she was the Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting, and was responsible for bringing in free television licences for the over 75s and discounted ones for the blind.

[21] In May 2009, during the disclosure of expenses of British members of parliament over MPs' expenses, The Daily Telegraph alleged that Anderson had submitted and was paid a claim form including mileage equalling five round trips to her constituency each week parliament despite living in London during the week.

[24] Other allegations included expenses for the upkeep of the home of her partner, fellow MP Jim Dowd MP, in his Lewisham constituency under her second home allowance despite Dowd claiming the London salary supplement intended to cover the additional cost of living in London.

[27] Anderson married solicitor Vincent Humphreys in 1972; the couple had three children, daughters Kate and Dee and son, James.

In 1998, she left, later divorcing Humphreys for her fellow Labour MP Jim Dowd, though she remained on good terms with her former husband.