Reginald Prentice

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Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice, PC (16 July 1923 – 18 January 2001) was a politician in the United Kingdom, representing the Labour Party and later the Conservative Party. He was the highest-ranking Labour figure ever to defect to the Conservative party.

Reg Prentice was educated at Whitgift School in South Croydon, South London, then at the London School of Economics. Having served in Austria and Italy in the Second World War, he joined the staff of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) in 1950.

[edit] Early politics

Prentice was a councillor for Whitehorse Manor in the then-County Borough of Croydon 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 in 1955. As Labour Member of Parliament from 1957 for East Ham North, later Newham North East, he was a minister of state in Harold Wilson's first government, first at Education and Science (1964-1966), then Public Buildings and Works (1966-1967), and finally in charge of the still-new Ministry of Overseas Development (1967-1969). When Labour regained power, he served as 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.

[edit] Defection

In 1977, Reg Prentice left the Labour Party in protest over its drift to the left and joined the Conservative Party. He had been deselected by his Constituency Labour Party, heralding times of great struggles between the 'left' and 'right' of the Party. He even appealed for the National Executive Committee to overturn their endorsement of his deselection from the rostrum of the Labour Party Conference.

Prentice was subsequently elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Daventry and served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's government. He was knighted in 1987, the year he stepped down as an MP. In 1992, he was raised to the Peerage as Baron Prentice, of Daventry in the County of Northamptonshire.

In his last few years before his death at 77, Prentice was President of the Devizes Conservative Association.

Lord Prentice's daughter, Christine, followed her father by serving as a London Borough of Croydon councillor (for Coulsdon East ward, 25 June 1992 - 10 May 1998).

[edit] External links

Tribune article at the time of Prentice's deselection by Newham NE CLP

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Percy Daines	Member of Parliament for East Ham North 1957–February 1974	Succeeded by (constituency abolished)
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Newham North East February 1974–1979	Succeeded by Ron Leighton
Preceded by Arthur Jones	Member of Parliament for Daventry 1979–1987	Succeeded by Tim Boswell
Political offices
Preceded by Charles Pannell	Minister of Public Buildings and Works 1966–1967	Succeeded by Robert Mellish
Preceded by Arthur Bottomley	Minister of Overseas Development 1967–1969	Succeeded by Judith Hart
Preceded by Margaret Thatcher	Secretary of State for Education and Science 1974–1975	Succeeded by Frederick Mulley
Preceded by Judith Hart	Minister for Overseas Development 1975–1976	Succeeded by Frank Judd