Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice, PC (July 16 1923 - January 18 2001) was a UK politician, representing the Labour Party and later the Conservative Party. He was the highest-ranking Labour figure ever to defect to the Conservative party.

Reg Prentice was educated at Whitgift School in Croydon, South London, then at the LSE. Having served in Austria and Italy in the Second World War, he joined the staff of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) in 1950.

Early politics

Prentice was a councillor for Whitehorse Manor on Croydon Council from 1949, having stood unsuccessfully in Thornton Heath ward in 1947. He served on the Housing, Libraries, Planning & Developmnt, Water and Reconstruction Committees. He first stood - unsuccessfully - for Parliament in Croydon North in 1950 and 1951. 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, first at Education and Science (1964-1966), then Public Buildings and Works (1966-1967), and finally in charge of the still-new Ministry of Overseas Development (1967-1969). When Labour regained power, he served as 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.

Defection

In 1977, Reg Prentice left the Labour Party in protest over its drift to the left and joined the Conservative Party. He had been deselected by his Constituency Labour Party, heralding times of great struggles between the 'left' and 'right' of the Party. He even appealed for the National Executive Committee to overturn their endorsement of his deselection from the rostrum of the Labour Party Conference.

Prentice was subsequently elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Daventry and served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's government. He was knighted in 1987, the year he stepped down as an MP. In 1992, he was raised to the Peerage as Baron Prentice, of Daventry in the County of Northamptonshire.

In his last few years, Prentice was President of the Devizes Conservative Association.

Lord Prentice's daughter, Christine, also served on Croydon Council like her father.

External links

• Tribune article at the time of Prentice's deselection by Newham NE CLP (http://www.tribweb.co.uk/archive/010875.htm)

Preceded by: Margaret Thatcher

Secretary of State for Education and Science 1974–1975

Followed by: Frederick Mulley