Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice,
PC (16 July 1923 – 18 January 2001)
was a British politician who held ministerial office in both
Labour and
Conservative Party governments. He was the most senior Labour figure ever to defect to the Conservative party.
Education and war service
Reg Prentice was born in
Croydon, Surrey, and educated at
Whitgift School in
South Croydon, then at the
London School of Economics. He served in Austria and Italy during
World War II.
Early politics
Prentice joined the staff of the
Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) in 1950.
He was a councillor for
Whitehorse Manor in the then-
County Borough of Croydon
The County Borough of Croydon was a local government district in and around the town of Croydon in north east Surrey, England from 1889 to 1965. Since 1965 the district has been part of the London Borough of Croydon within Greater London.
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from 1949, having stood unsuccessfully in
Thornton Heath ward in 1947. He served on the Housing, Libraries, Planning & Development, Water and Reconstruction Committees.
He first stood, unsuccessfully, for parliament in
Croydon North in 1950 and 1951, then
Streatham
Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
Streatham was in Surrey ...
in 1955. As Labour Member of Parliament from 1957 for
East Ham North, later
Newham North East
Newham North East was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, in the London Borough of Newham. It returned one Member of Parliament, elected by the first past the post system. ...
, he was a minister of state in
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
's first government at Education and Science (1964–66), then as
Minister of Public Buildings and Works (1966–67), and finally was put in charge of the still-new
Ministry of Overseas Development (1967–69).
In the
1971 Shadow Cabinet election, Prentice just missed out on being elected, finishing in 13th place in the ballot for 12 available places. However in April 1972 the resignations from the shadow cabinet of
Harold Lever and
George Thomson George Thomson may refer to:
Government and politics
* George Thomson (MP for Southwark) (c. 1607–1691), English merchant and Parliamentarian soldier, official and politician
* George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth (1921–2008), Scottish p ...
saw Prentice and 14th placed candidate
John Silkin join the body in their place. At the
next shadow cabinet election, Prentice topped the poll and he was again re-elected in
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
, this time finishing in third place.
When Labour regained power, he was
Secretary of State for Education and Science between 1974 and 1975, subsequently becoming Minister for Overseas Development with a seat in the cabinet until 1976.
In 1975, after his
Constituency Labour Party had been infiltrated by
Trotskyist Militants, he was
deselected.
[ He appealed unsuccessfully from the rostrum of the Labour Party Conference for the National Executive Committee to overturn their endorsement of his deselection.]
Switch of party
In 1977, Prentice left the Labour Party after a series of battles with left-wing constituency activists such as Owen Ashworth and joined the Conservative Party.
He was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Daventry in the 1979 general election. Lady Hesketh was instrumental in him standing for Daventry. He was a Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Security in Margaret Thatcher's government between 1979 and 1981. He left the government owing to ill health. He was knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in 1987, the year he stepped down as an MP. On 30 January 1992, he was created Life Peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...
as Baron Prentice, of Daventry in the County of Northamptonshire.
In the last few years before his death at age 77, he was President of the Devizes Conservative Association.
Death and legacy
Prentice died at his home in Mildenhall, Wiltshire
Mildenhall ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Kennet Valley in Wiltshire, England, immediately east of the market town of Marlborough. The village is about east of the centre of Marlborough, on the minor road which follows the River Kenne ...
. His daughter, Christine, followed her father as a London Borough of Croydon councillor for Coulsdon East ward from 1992 to 1998.
A biography, which provides an in-depth account of Prentice's party-political transition during the 1970s, was published in 2015: Geoff Horn, ''Crossing the floor: Reg Prentice and the crisis of British social democracy''.
Archives
Catalogue of the Prentice papers
Archives Division, London School of Economics
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Prentice, Reginald
1923 births
2001 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
British Secretaries of State
British Secretaries of State for Education
Conservative Party (UK) life peers
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Councillors in Greater London
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Members of the Fabian Society
Members of the Greater London Council
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People educated at Whitgift School
Politics of the London Borough of Croydon
UK MPs 1955–1959
UK MPs 1959–1964
UK MPs 1964–1966
UK MPs 1966–1970
UK MPs 1970–1974
UK MPs 1974
UK MPs 1974–1979
UK MPs 1979–1983
UK MPs 1983–1987
Councillors in the London Borough of Croydon
Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970