Fellow of University College London, and in 2010 became chairman of its Denys Holland Scholarship Fund. In 2006, Butler was invited by David Cameron to join his A-List of preferred Conservative candidates. In October 2013, she was announced as one of those standing for the party in the European Parliament election of 2014 in South West England, together with Ashley Fox, Julie Girling, James Cracknell, Sophia Swire, and Melissa Maynard. Butler said during the campaign that she hoped her experience of diplomacy would give her a stronger hand in helping with Cameron's renegotiation of Britain's EU membership and delivering a referendum on it in 2017, if the Conservatives were to win the next general election. The UK Independence Party ran strongly in South West England, gaining 51,000 more votes than the Conservatives. Two of its candidates, William Dartmouth and Julia Reid, were elected as Members of the European Parliament, and at number 4 on the Conservative party list, Butler was unsuccessful. In 2017 Butler was chairman of the Richmond Park and North Kingston Conservative Association and publicly welcomed the re-selection of Zac Goldsmith. She continued in office until 2019. In December 2019, she was appointed as a Special Representative of the Foreign Secretary for greeting Heads of State and overseas government visitors on arrival in the United Kingdom. Personal life From her marriage to Stephen Wright in 1970, Butler has a daughter, born in 1977, and a son, born in 1979. She and her husband were divorced in 2000. References Living people 1945 births British women ambassadors 21st-century British diplomats Academics of University College London Alumni of University College London Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Costa Rica Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Nicaragua Conservative Party (UK) politicians People educated at Torquay Grammar School for Girls