By Kate Holton
John Prescott, Britain’s longest-serving deputy prime minister who died on Wednesday, was indispensable to Tony Blair’s New Labour authorities, a working-class trailblazer who linked with the general public in methods most politicians can not.
Even after punching an egg-throwing protester throughout an in any other case carefully-scripted 2001 election marketing campaign, Prescott, who died of Alzheimer’s aged 86, weathered criticism saying he had simply defended himself – an episode that earned him the nickname “two jabs”.
Born in Wales, Prescott was the bridge who saved Labour’s conventional commerce union supporters on facet whereas its modernisers, former prime ministers Blair and Gordon Brown, shifted the occasion to the centre floor to assist it win three election victories after almost 20 years in opposition.
The proud former union official additionally acted as a wedding counsellor between the 2 males because the distrust of their relationship started to poison their administration.
That helped him survive a string of scandals, most famously the punching incident when he hit a member of the general public after he had been pelted with an egg, an act that cemented his picture as a bare-knuckle politician of the old fashioned.
“After all, it could have all been higher if it hadn’t occurred,” Blair mentioned on the time. However added: “John is John”.
Prescott was later quoted as telling Blair you “instructed us to attach with the voters, so I did”. He mentioned in 2019 that when he got here to die, his 50-year political profession could be decreased on the tv information to “60 seconds of me thumping a fellow in Wales”.
FIGHTING POLITICIAN
Prescott was born on Might 31, 1938, in a seaside home in Wales. His father was a railway signalman, his mom a maid.
Having left college at 15, he went to sea two years later as a steward on a cruise ship the place boxing bouts have been organised among the many crew to entertain the passengers.
“I used to be in my share of fights,” he was quoted as saying.
After a stint at Oxford’s Ruskin Faculty, he entered parliament in 1970 and labored his manner up the ranks, turning into deputy prime minister to Blair when the Labour authorities gained a historic victory in 1997.
He was handed a large ministerial transient, and was credited by his critics and colleagues alike for being a tough working and deft politician. However he was additionally lampooned by the press for his lack of oratory expertise and was mocked by the opposition for his working class background.
Reminiscent of Prescott’s time at sea, Conservative grandee Nicholas Soames used to shout “One other G&T (gin and tonic) Giovanni” every time Prescott obtained to his ft within the Home of Commons.
He was ridiculed for having two Jaguar automobiles which hit the headlines as “Two Jags” when he used one to journey 200 yards to an occasion, saying he wanted to guard his spouse Pauline’s hair from being blown round.
His fame additionally suffered after he acknowledged a protracted extra-marital affair along with his diary secretary in April 2006.
However Blair described Prescott as one of the proficient folks he had met in politics, and mentioned he had been very important in preserving the “entire present collectively” in Labour’s decade in energy.
Brown mentioned most individuals solely noticed the “bruiser” caricature, however mentioned Prescott was a person who exuded heat.
“Alzheimer’s was a horrible factor, however he by no means misplaced this heat and friendliness, which he confirmed always in non-public conversations,” he instructed BBC Radio.
Prescott additionally led negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol on local weather change and instructed the Guardian newspaper in 2018 he thought-about it his biggest achievement.
“I’ve by no means labored with anybody in politics — on my facet of the pond or his — fairly like John Prescott,” Al Gore, the previous U.S. vp and local weather campaigner, mentioned on Thursday.
Prescott retired from the Home of Commons in 2010, when Labour misplaced to the Conservative Celebration, and moved to the higher Home of Lords, the place he stayed till July this yr.
He’s survived by his spouse of 63 years, Pauline, and two sons. He died surrounded by family members and jazz, his household mentioned.
This text was produced by Reuters information company. It has not been edited by World South World.
