Editing Reg Prentice (section)

==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.