Elaine Burton, Baroness Burton of Coventry
Elaine Frances Burton, Baroness Burton of Coventry (2 March 1904 – 6 October 1991) was a politician in the United Kingdom. Career. Burton stood twice to become a Member of Parliament, before being elected on her third candidacy. 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, 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. She was also appointed to the Independent Television Authority between 1964 and 1969. In March 1981 Burton was one of nine Labour peers who left the party to join the newly formed Social  Democratic Party. She became their spokesman in the Lords on civil aviation and consumer affairs. Like most other SDP peers, she objected to her party's merger with the Liberal Party in 1988 to become the Liberal Democrats. Thereafter she sat as a crossbencher until her death.