She served in the House of Commons as the member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow East from 2010 and 2015, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland from 2011 until 2015.

In 1977, she was involved in the unsuccessful campaign to elect Hortensia Allende, the former First Lady of Chile, as Rector of the University of Glasgow.

Given Scottish Labour's losses in that later election, she was widely viewed as a popular potential successor to Jack McConnell as its leader, but decided not to stand against Wendy Alexander.

On 30 June 2008, David Marshall, MP for Glasgow East, resigned from the House of Commons on grounds of ill health, triggering a by-election.

[10][11] The by-election took place on 24 July 2008 and Curran was defeated by John Mason of the Scottish National Party by 365 votes.

[6] Willie Bain, then-MP for Glasgow North East, also became Curran's new deputy as Shadow Scotland Office Minister, replacing Tom Greatrex.

In 2012, Curran accused Salmond and his government of having a "culture of casual dishonesty",[16] and suggested his "blokeish attitude" made him a liability among women in Scotland during the Scottish independence referendum campaign.

[17] In November 2011, she told Holyrood magazine[18] that were Salmond to be killed by being run over by a bus, she would have no interest in finding out who the driver was.

[19] In April 2014, she dismissed Salmond's appeal to female voters, saying "Women will see through his cynical attempts to win them over" and described a speech he made as "drivel".