| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Prentice | |
| Birthname: | Reginald Ernest Prentice |
| Honorific-Suffix: | PC |
| Office: | Minister of State for Social Security |
| Primeminister: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start: | 7 May 1979 |
| Term End: | 5 January 1981 |
| Predecessor: | Alf Morris |
| Successor: | Hugh Rossi |
| Office1: | Minister of State for Overseas Development |
| Primeminister1: | Harold Wilson James Callaghan |
| Term Start1: | 10 June 1975 |
| Term End1: | 21 December 1976 |
| Predecessor1: | Judith Hart |
| Successor1: | Frank Judd |
| Primeminister2: | Harold Wilson |
| Term Start2: | 29 August 1967 |
| Term End2: | 6 October 1969 |
| Predecessor2: | Arthur Bottomley |
| Successor2: | Judith Hart |
| Office3: | Secretary of State for Education and Science |
| Primeminister3: | Harold Wilson |
| Term Start3: | 5 March 1974 |
| Term End3: | 10 June 1975 |
| Predecessor3: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Successor3: | Fred Mulley |
| Office4: | Shadow Secretary of State for Employment |
| Leader4: | Harold Wilson |
| Term Start4: | 19 April 1972 |
| Term End4: | 5 March 1974 |
| Predecessor4: | James Callaghan |
| Successor4: | William Whitelaw |
| Office5: | Minister of State for Public Buildings and Works |
| Primeminister5: | Harold Wilson |
| Term Start5: | 6 April 1966 |
| Term End5: | 29 August 1967 |
| Predecessor5: | Charles Pannell |
| Successor5: | Bob Mellish |
| Office6: | Minister of State for Education and Science |
| Primeminister6: | Harold Wilson |
| Term Start6: | 20 October 1964 |
| Term End6: | 6 April 1966 |
| Predecessor6: | Peter Legh |
| Successor6: | Goronwy Roberts |
| Office7: | Member of Parliament for Daventry |
| Term Start7: | 3 May 1979 |
| Term End7: | 18 May 1987 |
| Predecessor7: | Arthur Jones |
| Successor7: | Tim Boswell |
| Office8: | Member of Parliament for Newham North East |
| Term Start8: | 31 May 1957 |
| Term End8: | 7 April 1979 |
| Predecessor8: | Percy Daines |
| Successor8: | Ron Leighton |
| Birth Date: | 16 July 1923 |
| Birth Place: | Croydon |
| Death Place: | Mildenhall, Wiltshire |
| Party: | Conservative (1977–2001) |
| Otherparty: | Labour (before 1977) |
| Alma Mater: | London School of Economics |
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.
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.
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 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 (1964–66), 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 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, this time finishing in third place.[2]
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.[3] He appealed unsuccessfully from the rostrum of the Labour Party Conference for the National Executive Committee to overturn their endorsement of his deselection.
In 1977, Prentice left the Labour Party after a series of battles with left-wing constituency activists[3] 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.[4] 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.[3] He was knighted in 1987, 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.
In the last few years before his death at age 77, he was President of the Devizes Conservative Association.
Prentice died at his home in Mildenhall, Wiltshire. 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.[5]
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