Crossing the floor

Abstract

Reg Prentice remains the most high-profile politician to cross the floor of the House of Commons in the post-war period. His defection was reflective of an important ‘sea change’ in British politics; the end of the post-war consensus and the start of the Thatcher era. This book examines in detail the key events surrounding Prentice‘s transition from a front-line Labour politician, serving as a cabinet minister in the Labour Government (1974-79), through to his dramatic decision to join the Conservative Party of Margaret Thatcher. It focuses on the shifting and uncertain political climate in Britain during the 1970s, as the post-war settlement came under pressure from adverse economic conditions, militant trade unionism and an assertive Labour Left. This biographical treatment provides an important case study of the crisis that afflicted social democracy, highlighting the emerging divisions within the Labour Party, the fragmentation and underlying weakness of the Labour Right, and the potential for an SDP-style split. The realignment of the party system became an important and ever-present undercurrent in British politics during the 1970s. The question of how best to maintain the unity of a deeply divided party became a major consideration influencing the policy positions adopted by the Labour leadership under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. The trajectory of Prentice‘s career was closely connected to the prospects of realignment, whilst his political journey from Labour to Conservative was indicative of the turbulent and transitional nature of a watershed period in recent history.