He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1941 Birthday Honours.

Bottomley was a junior minister in Clement Attlee's governments, being Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (1946–47), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1947) and Secretary for Overseas Trade at the Board of Trade (1947–51).

In Harold Wilson's governments he was Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1964–66) — during which time he sought to deal with the consequences of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence — and Minister of Overseas Development (1966–67).

Announced in the 1984 New Year Honours,[2] he was created a life peer as Baron Bottomley of Middlesbrough in the County of Cleveland, on 31 January 1984.

His wife, Bessie Ellen Bottomley (née Wiles), JP, whom he married in 1936,[4] was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970 "[f]or public and social services."