John Prescott, pugnacious deputy UK PM to Tony Blair, dies at 86

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) -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 on Thursday.

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. “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.”

A proud trade unionist dubbed an old-school political “bruiser”, 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, 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” after he used his ministerial car for a 200 yard journey, which he said was needed to prevent his wife’s hair from being blown about in the wind.

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He was lampooned by the press for his lack of oratory skills and his reputation suffered after he acknowledged a long extra-marital 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.

Brown said Prescott was a Labour legend, who “despite an outwardly deceptive image of uncompromising toughness”, believed in the good in everyone. Current Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer called him a “one-off”.

“As one of the key architects of a Labour government, John achieved that rare thing: he changed people’s lives, and he set the path for us all to follow,” Starmer told parliament. “He did it all in his own way, with humour, with pride, passion and total conviction.”

Among the tributes from current and former politicians was one from former U.S. Vice President Al Gore who saluted Prescott’s work on negotiating the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Prescott considered it his greatest achievement.

“I’ve never worked with anyone in politics — on my side of the pond or this — 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.

(Reporting by Kate Holton and Muvija M in London and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Kim Coghill, Paul Sandle and Alison Williams)