Her youngest child, Olivia Blake, was elected as the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam in 2019.

[4] She contested the Leeds North West constituency in the 2005 and 2010 national elections as the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate.

[12][13][14] After then-leader Keith Wakefield stepped down, Blake was elected as the first woman leader of Leeds City Council in May 2015.

[15] During her time as leader she was a key proponent of a public art project to celebrate the women of Leeds, which culminated in the unveiling of Ribbons by Pippa Hale in 2024..[16] In December 2015, she expressed the frustration of city residents in feeling that David Cameron, then the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was giving greater attention to more affluent counties in southern England during a period of severe flooding.

[18] In December 2020, it was announced Blake would be conferred a Life Peerage after a nomination by Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer.