View source for Reg Prentice

{{Short description|British politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
|name             = The Lord Prentice
|birthname=Reginald Ernest Prentice
|honorific-suffix = [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]]
|image            = Reg Prentice 1963.jpg
|caption          = 1963
{{Collapsed infobox section begin|Frontbench portfolios 1964–1981|div=yes}}
|office           =[[Minister for Disabled People|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          = [[Secretary of State for International Development|Minister of State for Overseas Development]]
|primeminister1   = [[Harold Wilson]]<br>[[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&nbsp;Education&nbsp;and&nbsp;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          = [[First Commissioner of Works|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          = [[Department for Education|Minister of State for Education and Science]]
|primeminister6   = [[Harold Wilson]]
|term_start6      = 20 October 1964
|term_end6        = 6 April 1966
|predecessor6     = [[Peter Legh, 4th Baron Newton|Peter Legh]]
|successor6       = [[Goronwy Roberts]]
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}
|office7          = [[Member of Parliament (UK)|Member of Parliament]] <br> for [[Daventry (UK Parliament constituency)|Daventry]]
|term_start7      = 3 May 1979
|term_end7        = 18 May 1987
|predecessor7     = [[Arthur Jones (Conservative politician)|Arthur Jones]]
|successor7       = [[Tim Boswell]]
|office8          = [[Member of Parliament (UK)|Member of Parliament]] <br> for [[Newham North East]]<br>{{small|[[East Ham North]] (1957–1974)}}
|term_start8      = 31 May 1957
|term_end8        = 7 April 1979
|predecessor8     = [[Percy Daines]]
|successor8       = [[Ron Leighton]]
|birth_date       = {{birth date|1923|7|16|df=y}}
|birth_place      = [[Croydon]]
|death_date       = {{death date and age|2001|1|18|1923|7|16|df=y}}
|death_place      = [[Mildenhall, Wiltshire]]
|party            = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] <small>(1977–2001)</small>
|otherparty       = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] <small>(before 1977)</small>
|alma_mater       = [[London School of Economics]]
}}

'''Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice''', [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]] (16 July 1923 – 18 January 2001)<ref name ="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/75257?docPos=1 |title=Prentice, Reginald Ernest [Reg], Baron Prentice|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/75257 |accessdate=16 November 2021}}</ref> was a British politician who held ministerial office in both [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] and [[Conservative Party (UK)|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 [[Selhurst|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 (UK Parliament constituency)|Croydon North]] in 1950 and 1951, then [[Streatham (UK Parliament constituency)|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 Labour Party Shadow Cabinet election|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, Baron Thomson of Monifieth|George Thomson]] saw Prentice and 14th placed candidate [[John Silkin]] join the body in their place. At the [[1972 Labour Party Shadow Cabinet election|next shadow cabinet election]], Prentice topped the poll and he was again re-elected in [[1973 Labour Party Shadow Cabinet election|1973]], this time finishing in third place.<ref name="ButlersBPF">{{cite book |last1=Mortimer |first1=Roger |last2=Blick |first2=Andrew |title=Butler's British Political Facts |date=2018 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |isbn=978-1-137-56708-6 |pages=255–256}}</ref>

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 [[Trotsky]]ist [[Militant tendency|Militants]], he was [[Deselection of Labour MPs|deselected]].<ref name="White">{{cite news |last=White |first=Michael |date=22 January 2001 |title=Lord Prentice of Daventry |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jan/22/guardianobituaries.obituaries |work=The Guardian |access-date=26 May 2012}}</ref><ref name=HornCross/> He appealed unsuccessfully from the rostrum of the [[Labour Party Conference]] for the [[National Executive Committee of the Labour Party|National Executive Committee]] to overturn their endorsement of his deselection.<ref name="White" />

==Switch of party==
In 1977, Prentice left the Labour Party after a series of battles with left-wing constituency activists<ref name="White"/> and joined the Conservative Party.

He was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for [[Daventry (UK Parliament constituency)|Daventry]] in the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]].  [[Christian Mary McEwen|Lady Hesketh]] was instrumental in him standing for Daventry.<ref name ="Telegraph">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1515446/The-Dowager-Lady-Hesketh.html|title=The Dowager Lady Hesketh|work=The Telegraph|date=12 April 2006|publisher=Telegraph Media Group|accessdate=18 March 2012}}{{subscription required}}</ref> 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.<ref name="White"/> He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1987,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=51164 |date=29 December 1987 |page=15767}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=52824 |date=4 February 1992 |page=1851}}</ref>

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]].<ref name="ODNB" /> 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''.<ref name=HornCross>{{cite book|last1=Horn|first1=Geoff|title=Crossing the floor: Reg Prentice and the crisis of British social democracy|date=December 2015|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-9991-5|edition=paperback|url=http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719099915/|accessdate=16 November 2021}}</ref>

==Archives==
* [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=PRENTICE Catalogue of the Prentice papers] Archives Division, [[London School of Economics]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-reginald-prentice | Reg Prentice }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Percy Daines]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[East Ham North]]|years=[[1957 East Ham North by-election|1957]] – [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|1974]]}}
{{s-non|reason=Constituency abolished}}
|-
{{s-new|constituency}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Newham North East]]|years=[[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|1974]]–[[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ron Leighton]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Arthur Jones (Conservative politician)|Arthur Jones]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Daventry (UK Parliament constituency)|Daventry]]|years=[[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979]]–[[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Tim Boswell]]}}
|-
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Charles Pannell]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[First Commissioner of Works|Minister of State for Public Buildings and Works]]|years=1966–1967}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Bob Mellish]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Arthur Bottomley]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Secretary of State for International Development|Minister of State for Overseas Development]]|years=1967–1969}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Judith Hart]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Margaret Thatcher]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Secretary of State for Education]] and Science|years=1974–1975}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Fred Mulley]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Judith Hart]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Secretary of State for International Development|Minister of State for Overseas Development]]|years=1975–1976}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Frank Judd]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Alf Morris]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Minister of State for [[Department of Health and Social Security|Social Security (Minister for the Disabled)]]|years=1979–1981}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Hugh Rossi]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Second Wilson Ministry}}
{{Callaghan Ministry}}
{{Secretary of State for International Development}}
{{Secretaries of State for Education}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prentice, Reginald}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:British Secretaries of State for Education]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Councillors in Greater London]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Fabian Society]]
[[Category:Members of the Greater London Council]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People educated at Whitgift School]]
[[Category:Politics of the London Borough of Croydon]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1955–1959]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1959–1964]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1964–1966]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1966–1970]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1970–1974]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1974]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1974–1979]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1979–1983]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1983–1987]]
[[Category:Councillors in the London Borough of Croydon]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]