She lost as a Common Wealth Party candidate in the 1943 Hartlepool by-election, before switching to the Labour Party and losing as a candidate in Hendon South in the 1945 general election.

In the 1950 general election, she was elected for the newly created constituency of Coventry South, holding the seat until 1959, when it was gained by the Conservative candidate Philip Hocking.

Burton was elevated to the peerage in April 1962 as Baroness Burton of Coventry, of Coventry in the County of Warwick,[1] where she spoke on topics including women's opportunities in business and public life, and campaigned for the creation of an independent grant-supported body for sport, leading to her appointment to the newly formed Sports Council in 1965.

Like most other SDP peers, she objected to her party's merger with the Liberal Party in 1988 to become the Liberal Democrats, and became a member of David Owen's 'continuing' SDP until its dissolution in 1990.

This article about a Labour Party member of Parliament representing an English constituency is a stub.