[8] Butler was educated at Kingston Grammar School and received a BA in English and history with honours from the University of Nottingham in 1977.

He worked for the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) in their Bookstall Service (1978–1980) before training for Ordained ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford from 1980 to 1983.

He was also area dean of Waltham Forest from 2000 to 2004 and was appointed an honorary canon of Byumba in Rwanda in 2001.

[11] Butler is known for his annual "prayer-walks" in which he spends a week each year walking round a part of his diocese praying with local people.

The predictions from people like the independent financial services are that the child limit is actually going to have the biggest impact on increasing the number of children living in relative poverty.

[20] He voted against introducing "standalone services for same-sex couples" on a trial basis during a meeting of the General Synod in November 2023; the motion passed.

[28] In March 2015, it was revealed that Butler had, a year previously, reported former Conservative MP Enoch Powell as being involved with a Westminster paedophile ring in the 1980s, after the allegations were passed to him by Dominic Walker, the former bishop of Monmouth.

Butler was the bishop at the centre of the Elliott Review which led to damning headlines across UK media in March 2016.

The highly critical report concluded there had been a string of "deeply disturbing" failures by senior Church of England figures, including the office of the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.