Reg Prentice

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British politician

title: "Reg Prentice" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1923-births", "2001-deaths", "alumni-of-the-london-school-of-economics", "british-secretaries-of-state-for-education", "conservative-party-(uk)-life-peers", "conservative-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "councillors-in-greater-london", "labour-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "members-of-the-fabian-society", "members-of-the-greater-london-council", "members-of-the-privy-council-of-the-united-kingdom", "people-educated-at-whitgift-school", "politics-of-the-london-borough-of-croydon", "uk-mps-1955–1959", "uk-mps-1959–1964", "uk-mps-1964–1966", "uk-mps-1966–1970", "uk-mps-1970–1974", "uk-mps-1974", "uk-mps-1974–1979", "uk-mps-1979–1983", "uk-mps-1983–1987", "councillors-in-the-london-borough-of-croydon", "ministers-in-the-wilson-governments,-1964–1970", "life-peers-created-by-elizabeth-ii"] description: "British politician" topic_path: "economics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Prentice" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Lord Prentice
birthname	Reginald Ernest Prentice
honorific-suffix	PC
image	Reg Prentice 1963.jpg
caption	1963
{{Collapsed infobox section begin	Frontbench portfolios 1964–1981
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 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
East Ham North (1957–1974)
term_start8	31 May 1957
term_end8	7 April 1979
predecessor8	Percy Daines
successor8	Ron Leighton
office9	Member of the House of Lords
status9	Lord Temporal
termlabel9	Life peerage
term_start9	30 January 1992
term_end9	18 January 2001
birth_date
birth_place	Croydon
death_date
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) 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 appealed unsuccessfully from the rostrum of the Labour Party Conference for the National Executive Committee to overturn their endorsement of his deselection.

Switch of party

In 1977, Prentice left the Labour Party after a series of battles with left-wing constituency activists 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. 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. 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.

Death and legacy

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.

References

(2004). "Prentice, Reginald Ernest [Reg], Baron Prentice".
(2018). "Butler's British Political Facts". Palgrave Macmillan.
White, Michael. (22 January 2001). "Lord Prentice of Daventry". The Guardian.
(12 April 2006). "The Dowager Lady Hesketh". Telegraph Media Group.
{{London Gazette. (29 December 1987)
{{London Gazette. (4 February 1992)
(December 2015). "Crossing the floor: Reg Prentice and the crisis of British social democracy". Manchester University Press.

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Reg Prentice

Education and war service

Early politics

Switch of party

Death and legacy

Archives

References

References