Dawn Petula Butler (born 3 November 1969) is a British Labour Party politician who is member of parliament (MP) for Brent East.

Her seat was abolished prior to the 2010 general election, being replaced by Brent Central which was won by Liberal Democrat candidate, Sarah Teather.

Initially a supporter of Andy Burnham, Butler later became a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn during his tenure as Leader of the Opposition.

In October 2016, Butler was appointed to the new role of Shadow Minister for Black and Minority Ethnic Communities by Corbyn after his re-election as Labour leader.

After Gordon Brown became prime minister in June 2007, Butler was made one of the Labour Party's six vice chairs, with particular responsibility for youth issues.

Earlier (in November 2005), she had been promoted to Parliamentary Private Secretary to the health minister Jane Kennedy, but decided to stand down from this post in early 2006.

[15][16] Following her appointment as Minister for Young Citizens and Youth Engagement, Butler became the first black woman to speak from the despatch box in the House of Commons in December 2009.

[17] She later said that Conservative MPs "tried to belittle me at that moment in history", specifying that one Tory MP "took great delight in telling me that ‘upskilling’ was not in the English dictionary".

[27] After Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected leader in 2016, Butler was appointed as Labour's Shadow Minister for Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in October 2016.

[29] In February 2017, Butler resigned from Corbyn's frontbench before the vote on the second reading in the House of Commons of European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 which triggered Article 50.

[38] In October 2019, one of Corbyn's advisors accused Butler of homophobia after she said that "90 per cent of giraffes are gay", while arguing that homosexuality is not something that is taught, at the PinkNews awards.

In February 2020, Butler was criticised following an interview with Richard Madeley on Good Morning Britain during which she stated that: "A child is born without sex".

[41] She was taking part in a debate about reactions to updates to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 which were proposed by the governing Conservative Party.

[11] Following the election of Keir Starmer as Leader of the Labour Party, Butler was not appointed to the new Shadow Cabinet and was succeeded by Marsha de Cordova.

[53][54][55] The Police Federation of England and Wales responded that she was mistaken and called for body worn camera footage to be released.

[56] In September 2020, Butler was criticised after she praised, in a tweet later deleted, Extinction Rebellion protestors who blocked the printworks of several major newspapers.

[62] On 8 July 2021, the Crown Prosecution Service authorised Cheshire Police to charge a 70-year-old man from Warrington with sending an offensive message to Butler.

[64] On 22 July 2021, Butler was ordered to leave the House of Commons by acting deputy speaker Judith Cummins, after she made comments calling the Prime Minister Boris Johnson a liar.

[70] In November 2024, Butler sparked controversy after retweeting a post from British-Nigerian author Nels Abbey, which labeled newly elected Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch as "the most prominent member of white supremacy's black collaborator class."

Despite this, he defended Butler, arguing that many in the black community might not see Badenoch’s leadership as a positive due to her political stance.