She was appointed to Neil Kinnock's shadow cabinet shortly afterwards; she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1992, becoming the first woman to hold that role.

She was educated at the Notre Dame High School for Girls in Norwich, then at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where she took a degree in metallurgy.

She joined the University of Manchester in 1966 as an experiment officer in its metallurgy department, and in 1970 went to work for the Labour Party as a researcher in industrial policy.

Harold Wilson made her a Whip in 1975,[3] and in 1976 promoted her to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Science, replacing Joan Lestor, who had resigned in protest over spending cuts.

Beckett was selected to stand at the 1983 general election as the Labour candidate in the parliamentary constituency of Derby South following the retirement of the sitting MP, Walter Johnson.

In March 2022 Beckett announced she would end her parliamentary career, standing down as MP for Derby South at the next general election.

[5] Upon returning to the House of Commons, Beckett gradually moved away from the left, supporting incumbent leader Neil Kinnock against Benn in 1988.

[6][7] Beckett decided to run for the position of Labour Leader, but came last in the subsequent leadership election, behind Tony Blair and John Prescott.

[citation needed] Beckett rejected demands for an expansion of nuclear power from a lobby including energy minister Brian Wilson and Downing Street staff.

[12][13][14] Beckett held the position of Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until May 2006, when she was succeeded by David Miliband.

Beckett was on the front line of the government's efforts to tackle climate change, and attended international conferences on the matter.

[16] Some commentators claim that Beckett was promoted to Foreign Secretary because she was considered to be a 'safe pair of hands' and a loyal member of the Cabinet.

About a month later, she came under fire for not responding quickly enough to the 2006 Lebanon War which saw Israel invade that country, although some reports suggested that the delay was caused by Cabinet division rather than Beckett's reluctance to make a public statement on the matter.

to have delegated European issues to the Foreign Office minister responsible for Europe, Geoff Hoon, who, following his demotion as Defence Secretary, continued to attend Cabinet meetings.

[22] The Spectator described her as "at heart, an old, isolationist, pacifist Leftist" and called on her to resign,[23] and the New Statesman accused her of allowing the Foreign Office to become subservient to 10 Downing Street after the tenures of Straw and Robin Cook.

Former minister Michael Meacher said there was "despair, anger and bewilderment" in the Labour Party at the UK's failure to call for an immediate ceasefire.

It was announced on 29 January 2008 that Beckett would become the new head of the Prime Minister's Intelligence and Security Committee, replacing Paul Murphy, who became the Secretary of State for Wales.

[citation needed] Beckett was a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009.

[35] In August 2009, Beckett wrote to Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life which was investigating MPs' expenses.

[39] Furthermore, in January 2016, Beckett claimed that Labour would need an "unexpected political miracle" if it were to win under his leadership,[40] and criticised Corbyn for failing to win back the trust of the electorate on welfare reform and mass immigration, saying: "I think we had the right policies towards immigration, but the simple thuggishness of the kind of Ukip and Conservative approach is easier to understand and we didn't overcome those communication difficulties ... We have to try and work on ways to overcome that – I'm not suggesting we've done it yet".

[42] In February 2019, however, she acknowledged during an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News that she was "surprised" about how Corbyn had "grown into the job" after taking on the leadership.

She further claimed that veteran Conservative MP Kenneth Clarke called Corbyn a "perfectly competent" opposition leader.

[45] The report said that explanations including Labour being "anti-business" or "anti-aspiration" were not "significant" factors, saying that "reasons for defeat should be treated with caution and require deeper analysis".

[45] The main reasons given for Labour's losses were the perceived weakness of Ed Miliband as party leader, fear of Labour's relationship with the Scottish National Party (SNP) among English voters, a perceived association with the financial crisis under the Brown ministry[45] and "issues of connection" with voters.

Beckett said the party should campaign in ordinary language, focus its policy on the condition of Britain in 2020, unite for the EU referendum and draw up a five-year media strategy.

Stephen Bush wrote in the New Statesman that "every bit of the Labour party will have something it can cling to" in the report:[48] He continued: Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn will take heart from the fact that individual left-wing policies, like the mansion tax, were popular.

But Corbyn-sceptics will note that it was voters that went for Tony Blair and David Cameron that failed to back the party in 2015, which they will take as an endorsement of a centrist approach.

[51] On 24 November 2020, Beckett was elected to succeed the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association's Andi Fox as the Chair of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.

"[54] Fellow NEC members called on her to resign, while Labour's general secretary David Evans said that complaints against Beckett would be investigated.

She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for public and political service[55][56] and was promoted to Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for parliamentary, political and public service.