On 23 July 1998 Thornton was created a Life peer by Tony Blair,with the title Baroness Thornton,of Manningham in the County of West Yorkshire.[2] She chaired the Social Enterprise Coalition until January 2008,when she was appointed a junior minister of the House of Lords.[3] In September 2007,she was made chair of the advisory group that trains public sector staff to work with the voluntary sector.[4] In May 2012,her role in Labour was moved from health to equalities,with her role on the health portfolio being taken over by Lord Hunt.[5]
In 2009,she was reported to be claiming £22,000 a year in expenses by saying that her mother's bungalow in Yorkshire is her main home,amounting to around £130,000 between 2002 and 2009.[8] She was later cleared of any wrongdoing by Michael Pownall,the Clerk of Parliaments,after it was determined that she spent much of her time there while caring for her mother.[9]
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