In 2007, Butler was elected as a Conservative to Richmondshire District Council in North Yorkshire, representing Leyburn, and was re-elected in 2011.
[3] At the European Parliament elections of 2009, Butler was an unsuccessful Conservative party list candidate in Yorkshire and the Humber.
[7] She took part in Congress election observation missions in Bulgaria in October 2011,[8] in Armenia in September 2012,[9] and in Georgia in June 2014.
In 2017, Butler wrote in The Independent of the Conservative Party's "problem with feminism", insisting that it had an imbalance between men and women in the ranks of members of parliament and councillors which needed to change.
[13] In October 2022, The Times ran an article about a call by Butler for older Conservative men in the House of Commons to make way for younger women.