One of five children of Sushil Kumar Malhotra (1941–2014), of Osterley, a shop owner, formerly a financial adviser and an engineer, and his wife Usha,[3] Malhotra was educated at schools in the London Borough of Hounslow, studied politics and philosophy at the University of Warwick and took a postgraduate degree in business and information studies at Aston University.

While Labour was in government before 2010, she worked as an adviser to Liam Byrne and Ian Austin when they were regional ministers for the West Midlands.

[6][8][9][10] In August 2014, Ed Miliband appointed Malhotra to the newly created role of Shadow Minister for Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls.

In this she took up identifying problems, finding solutions and reviewing funding decisions as to crime prevention, prosecution and victim support in cases of rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, prostitution and trafficking.

[12][13] She supported Owen Smith in his failed bid to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election.

[1] On 10 September 2024 she announced the imposition of a visa requirement for Jordanian citizens to enter the UK, in order to prevent refugees from that country from claiming asylum.