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 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.

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 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. 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.

Death and legacy

Prentice died at his home in Mildenhall, Wiltshire.

Archives

  • Catalogue of the Prentice papers Archives Division, London School of Economics

References

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