Castle was born in Bradford and educated at Bradford Girls' Grammar School and St Hugh's College, Oxford. She entered Parliament as Labour MP for Blackburn in 1945, and was chair of the Labour Party 1958-59.

Her proposals for the reform of industrial relations, In Place of Strife, encountered considerable opposition from the trade-union movement and within the Labour Party because they sought to create a legal framework for industrial relations, including a number of penal sanctions. The proposals were dropped in the face of this opposition, although she remained secretary of state until Labour's defeat in 1970.

She campaigned vigorously against Britain's entry into the European Economic Community between 1970 and the referendum of 1975. In March 1974 she became secretary of state for social services, but she was dropped from the government following its reconstruction on the appointment of James Callaghan as prime minister in 1976.

Her autobiography, Fighting All the Way, was published in 1993.

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Castle, Barbara