Reg Prentice

Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice, PC (16 July 1923 – 18 January 2001^[1]) 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, London, and educated at Whitgift School in South Croydon, then at the London School of Economics. He served in Austria and Italy during the Second World War.

Early politics

He joined the staff of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) in 1950.

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 at Education and Science (1964–1966), then as Minister of Public Buildings and Works (1966–1967), and finally was put in charge of the still-new Ministry of Overseas Development (1967–1969).

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 1976, he was deselected by his Constituency Labour Party. He appealed unsuccessfully for the National Executive Committee to overturn their endorsement of his deselection from the rostrum of the Labour Party Conference.^[2]

Switch of party

In 1977, Prentice left the Labour Party after a series of battles with left-wing constituency activists such as Owen Ashworth^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[2] He was knighted in 1987,^[4] the year he stepped down as an MP. On 30 January 1992, he was created Life Peer as Baron Prentice, of Daventry in the County of Northamptonshire.^[5]

In the last few years before his death at age 77, he was President of the Devizes Conservative Association. He died in Mildenhall, Wiltshire. His daughter, Christine, followed her father as a London Borough of Croydon councillor for Coulsdon East ward from 1992 to 1998.

Archives

• Catalogue of the Prentice papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Reg Prentice

Wilson Cabinet Tony Benn James Callaghan Barbara Castle Anthony Crosland Lord Elwyn-Jones Michael Foot Denis Healey Roy Jenkins Harold Lever Roy Mason Bob Mellish John Morris Fred Mulley Stanley Orme Lord Peart Reg Prentice Merlyn Rees Bill Rodgers Willie Ross Lord Shepherd Peter Shore Edward Short John Silkin Eric Varley Shirley Williams Harold Wilson

Callaghan Cabinet Joel Barnett Tony Benn Albert Booth James Callaghan Anthony Crosland Edmund Dell Lord Elwyn-Jones David Ennals Michael Foot Roy Hattersley Denis Healey Roy Jenkins Harold Lever Roy Mason Bruce Millan John Morris Fred Mulley Stanley Orme David Owen Lord Peart Reg Prentice Merlyn Rees Bill Rodgers Lord Shepherd Peter Shore John Silkin John Smith Eric Varley Shirley Williams

Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom Minister of Overseas Development Castle Greenwood Bottomley Prentice Hart Wood* Hart* Prentice* Judd* Hart* Marten* Raison* Patten* Chalker* Secretary of State for International Development Short Amos Benn Alexander Mitchell Greening * Served as Minister for Overseas Development as a Minister of State at the Foreign Office