[2] She previously sat for Labour when, in 2012, Uddin was required to repay £125,349, the largest amount in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal.

She attended the Plashet School in East Ham and was educated at the University of North London, where she earned a degree in social work.

In 1990, Uddin was elected a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the first Bengali woman to hold such an office of a local authority in the United Kingdom.

Appointed a Labour "working peer" by Tony Blair, she was raised to the peerage, at the age of 39, as Baroness Uddin, of Bethnal Green in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets,[8] for life by Letters patent in the afternoon of 18 July 1998, at the House of Lords.

[17] In October 2010, under the recommendation of The Privileges and Conduct Committee of The House of Lords a suspension is to be handed down to Pola Uddin until Easter 2012 at the earliest for claiming expenses "to which she was not entitled".

[18] In December 2019, Uddin campaigned for the successful Labour Party candidate for Poplar and Limehouse, Apsana Begum, during the 2019 General Election.

[20] In May 2009, an article by The Sunday Times Insight team alleged that Uddin submitted House of Lords Expenses for a flat in Maidstone, Kent as her main residence.

[23] Uddin's husband even denied having a property in Kent when questioned on the issue by the Times, and she appeared on the electoral roll at her London address from 1996 to date.

[24] Scottish National Party MP Angus Robertson called for an investigation on the report to the House of Lords authorities and the police.

[26] In January 2010 The Times newspaper revealed the property she had claimed for during this period was owned and occupied by her brother and his family, with Uddin's sister-in-law stating she couldn't recollect the Peer ever living there.

The allegations of fraud led the Conservative opposition leader in Tower Hamlets, Peter Golds, to state, "Lady Uddin is depriving a low-income family of a home which was built for the needy at public expense".

[31] The Crown Prosecution Service announced on 10 March 2010 that Baroness Uddin would not face any charges on the grounds that a senior parliamentary official ruled that a peer's "main house" might be a place they visit only once a month.

[32] On 18 October 2010, the House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee ruled that Baroness Uddin had 'acted in bad faith'[33] and recommended that she should be asked to repay £125,349 as well as being suspended from Parliament until Easter 2012.

The mansion was believed to have been built after Uddin became a peer in 1998, costing £140,000 which was organised by her husband Komar, located in Jawa Bazar in Chhatak; this is where many of her in-laws are originally from.