Listed below are key info about John Prescott, Britain’s combative former deputy prime minister, who has died after a battle with Alzheimer’s illness, his household stated on Thursday:
– Prescott, 86, served as deputy prime minister in Tony Blair’s Labour authorities from 1997 to 2007 and acquired a peerage in 2010.
– Born in Wales to a railway signalman and a home helper, he was all the time fiercely defensive of his working class roots. He went to sea at 17, as a steward on a luxurious cruise ship, the place he boxed to entertain passengers.
– He entered parliament in 1970 and have become deputy chief of Labour in 1994. He was an efficient conduit between the figureheads of Blair’s revamped “New Labour” and the traditionalists of Labour’s grassroots. He additionally acted as peace dealer within the fraught relationship between Blair and his future successor, the then-Chancellor Gordon Brown.
– Prescott was persistently lampooned by the media and opponents for his lack of oratory abilities. He mispronounced phrases or made grammatical errors, prompting sketch writers to cruelly counsel his speeches would make as a lot sense performed backwards.
– He aimed a left jab at a person who threw an egg at him throughout the 2001 election marketing campaign, residing as much as his picture as a bare-knuckle politician of the old-fashioned. His nickname within the media was “Two Jags”, from having two luxurious Jaguar vehicles.
– In April 2006, Prescott acknowledged an extended extra-marital affair together with his diary secretary Tracey Temple, 24 years his junior. The affair, which included intercourse periods in his workplace, prompted a number of ladies to come back ahead and accuse him of sexist behaviour in the direction of them. His spouse Pauline stood by him.
– That July parliament launched a full investigation into his contacts with American billionaire Philip Anschutz, who hoped to open an enormous on line casino on the Millennium Dome in London. Prescott met him a number of occasions and had even stayed at his ranch. Police stated subsequently Prescott wouldn’t face prosecution.
This text was produced by Reuters information company. It has not been edited by World South World.
