Editing Barbara Castle (section)

==Early career==
Castle was elected to [[St Pancras Metropolitan Borough Council]] in 1937 (where she remained until 1945), and in 1943 she spoke at the annual Labour Party Conference for the first time.<ref name = ODNB/> Throughout the [[Second World War]] she worked as a senior administrative officer at the [[Minister of Food (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Food]] and she was an [[Air Raid Precautions]] (ARP) warden during [[the Blitz]].<ref name="Derby">{{cite web|url=https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/non-driver-derbyshire-born-mp-1866069|title=Non-Driver Derbyshire-Born MP Who Put Her Foot Down When It Came to Road Safety|first=Jim|last=Pickard|date=6 August 2018|access-date=27 August 2018|work=[[Derby Telegraph]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825120635/https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/non-driver-derbyshire-born-mp-1866069|archive-date=25 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

She became a reporter on the left-wing magazine ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]'', where she had a romantic relationship with [[William Mellor (journalist)|William Mellor]], who was to become its editor, until his death in 1942.<ref name="tribune-20140724">{{cite news |url=http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2014/07/how-cyril-smith-outwitted-barbara-castle-in-the-strange-case-of-the-paedophiles-at-the-home-office/ |title=How Cyril Smith Outwitted Barbara Castle in the Strange Case of the Paedophiles at the Home Office |author=Andrew Rosthorn |newspaper=Tribune |date=24 July 2014 |access-date=2 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914151259/http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2014/07/how-cyril-smith-outwitted-barbara-castle-in-the-strange-case-of-the-paedophiles-at-the-home-office/ |archive-date=14 September 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Following her marriage to [[Edward Castle, Baron Castle|Ted Castle]] in 1944, she became the housing correspondent at the ''[[Daily Mirror]]''.<ref name="tribune-20140724"/>