Dawn Butler
Dawn Petula Butler (born 3 November 1969) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent Central since 2015.[1][2] Born in London to Jamaican immigrant parents as one of six children, Butler worked on market stalls in her youth before entering politics as a Brent councillor in 2004 and later as a trade union officer and adviser to London Mayor Ken Livingstone.[3] Butler held several shadow ministerial roles under Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, including Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities from 2017 to 2020, during which she advocated for policies on gender equality and racial justice.[4] She ran in the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election, finishing third behind Angela Rayner and Richard Burgon. More recently, she became the first black woman appointed to the Speaker's Panel of Chairs in 2025 and chairs the London Parliamentary Labour Party, while founding the Parliamentary Black Caucus to address underrepresentation.[5][6][3] Her parliamentary career has included notable controversies, such as her 2021 ejection from the House of Commons after refusing to retract accusations that Prime Minister Boris Johnson knowingly misled Parliament, leading to her being named by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle and ordered to withdraw.[7] In 2020, Butler accused the Metropolitan Police of institutional racism after a vehicle stop in London, claiming racial profiling, though the force's deputy commissioner criticized the ensuing "trial by social media."[8][9] She has also faced threats, closing her constituency office in 2020 amid racist abuse following public statements on race.[10] Butler's advocacy extends to praising the Labour left's Militant tendency in 2018 for resisting austerity and celebrating ethnic minority representation in government, which drew police reports in 2024.[11][12]