John Prescott, combative deputy to UK's Blair, dies

John Prescott, the pugnacious deputy prime minister to Britain’s Tony Blair during his 10 years in government, has died aged 86 after a battle with Alzheimer’s, his family said.

Prescott, who served under Blair from 1997 to 2007, was known as a plain-speaking politician who bridged the divide between the traditional left-wing and the modernisers in the Labour Party.

“There was no one quite like him in British politics,” Blair told BBC radio on Thursday.

“I don’t think, to be honest, I’d ever met anyone quite like John, and I still don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like him, and I’m very sad that he’s passed.”

Dubbed an old-school political “bruiser” and a proud trade unionist, he famously punched a member of the public during an election campaign in 2001, after he had been pelted with an egg.

“I was just thinking this morning about the time ... when someone smashed an egg on his head and he turned around and he punched the guy and laid him out ... There were no rules that he really abided by,” Blair said.

Prescott was born on May 31, 1938, in a seaside house in Wales. His father was a railway signalman, and his mother a maid.

Aged 17, he went to sea as a steward on a luxury cruise ship where boxing bouts were organised among the crew to entertain the passengers.

He went into politics after coming ashore and he attended Oxford’s Ruskin College, which offered courses for mature students.

Prescott entered parliament in 1970 and worked his way through the ranks, becoming a key player in the Labour Party’s historic three-election victories from 1997 to 2007.

He acted as a peace broker in the often fraught relationship between Blair and his future successor, Gordon Brown, and was later called “Two Jags” - a reference to his official Jaguar and his own vehicle - after he used his ministerial car for a 200-metre journey, which he said was needed to prevent his wife’s hair being blown about in the wind.

He was lampooned by the media for his lack of oratory skills and his reputation suffered after he acknowledged a long extramarital affair with his younger diary secretary in April 2006.

However, Blair described Prescott as one of the most talented people he had encountered in politics and said he had been vital in keeping the “whole show together” during Labour’s decade in power.

“John Prescott became - and will remain - a legend of the Labour Party: self-educated, passionate in his beliefs, courageous in the causes he adopted, and despite an outwardly deceptive image of uncompromising toughness, he was generous believing in the good in everyone,” Brown said.

Among the tributes from current and former politicians was one from former US vice-president Al Gore who saluted Prescott’s work on negotiating the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

Prescott told the Guardian newspaper in 2018 that he considered it his greatest achievement.

“I’ve never worked with anyone in politics - on my side of the pond or his - quite like John Prescott,” Gore said.

Prescott is survived by his wife of 63 years, Pauline, and two sons.

His family said he had died “surrounded by the love of his family and the jazz music of Marian Montgomery”.

“John spent his life trying to improve the lives of others, fighting for social justice and protecting the environment, doing so from his time as a waiter on the cruise liners to becoming Britain’s longest-serving deputy prime minister,” the statement said.