Joyce Butler

Who was Joyce Butler?

Joyce Shore Butler, born Joyce Shore Wells was a British Labour Co-operative politician.

Butler was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Woodbrooke College. She married Vic Butler, a Co-operative Party worker who became a councillor, the first mayor of the London Borough of Haringey and a parliamentary candidate. She was a housewife and had two children.

Butler became a councillor on Wood Green Borough Council in 1947, serving until the borough's abolition in 1965. She was chairman of the Housing committee and Leader of the Labour Group on Wood Green Council. She was an alderman and the first chairman of the new London Borough of Haringey in 1964.

Butler was first elected to Parliament at the 1955 general election, for the Wood Green constituency. She served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Land and Natural Resources 1965-67 but held no front-bench position. She served as vice-chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party and chair of the group of Co-operative Party MPs. She retired from Parliament at the 1979 general election.