Lord Prescott was most ‘talented and unusual’ politician

Tony Blair has described John Prescott as one of the “most talented” and “unusual” people he encountered in politics after his former deputy prime minister died aged 86.

“There was nothing about John which fitted conventional wisdom”, he said.

The former trade union activist served as Sir Tony Blair’s deputy for 10 years after Labour’s 1997 election landslide.

Sir Tony said there was “nothing formal” about their partnership in government – and that they developed a “genuine admiration, respect and affection for each other.”

“Underneath what could be a fierce exterior, and a manner some undoubtedly found intimidating, beat a loving, kind and compassionate human heart”, he added.

In a statement announcing his death, Lord Prescott’s wife and two sons said he had been in a care home recently living with Alzheimer’s.

“We are deeply saddened to inform you that our beloved husband, father and grandfather, John Prescott, passed away peacefully yesterday at the age of 86,” they said.

“He did so surrounded by the love of his family and the jazz music of Marian Montgomery.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was deeply saddened to hear of Lord Prescott’s death, and called him a “true giant” of the Labour movement.

In a career that stretched back over half a century, Lord Prescott was first elected as MP for Hull East in 1970 and went on to hold the seat for almost 40 years.

Lord Prescott joined the shadow cabinet in 1983 with responsibility for transport.

Between 1997 and 2007, he was deputy to Sir Tony and received a peerage in 2010.

His retirement from the Commons, and break from frontline politics, did not last long as five years later he was advising Ed Miliband and, in 2017, supporting Jeremy Corbyn.

Lord Prescott ceased to be a member of the House of Lords in July of this year due to non-attendance, having only spoken once in the chamber since suffering a stroke in 2019. He had not voted since February 2023, according to official records.

Born in Prestatyn, Wales, Lord Prescott left school at 15 and worked as a steward in the Merchant Navy. He then studied at Ruskin College in Oxford, before entering politics.

“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,” his family said.

“John dearly loved his home of Hull and representing its people in Parliament for 40 years was his greatest honour.”

Lord Prescott married his wife, Pauline, in 1961 and they had two children together – David and Jonathan.

He was nicknamed “two jags” by the press after it emerged he had two Jaguar cars. But in 2021, he revealed he no longer had a motor vehicle, saying “I am now Zero Jags”.

He also famously punched a man who threw an egg at him while on the general election campaign trail in Rhyl, North Wales in 2001.

After pictures of the incident appeared in press around the world, a new nickname of “two jabs” was coined for him by journalists.

Lord Prescott said he had acted in self-defence and police refused to take any further action. Subsequent newspaper polls suggested most people supported his reaction.

Commenting at the time, Sir Tony said: “John is John”.

Though a loyal supporter of Sir Tony during his time in office, Lord Prescott was later critical of Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war, telling the BBC that the 2003 invasion of the country “cannot be justified”.

To the surprise of many of his supporters, he accepted a peerage in 2010 despite reportedly having once said: “I don’t want to be a member of the House of Lords. I will not accept it.”

He defended the decision because it would give him continued influence over environmental policy.

But his most robust interventions in Lords debates involved attacking the government’s response to the phone-hacking scandal.

For Lord Prescott, the matter was personal – his lawyers alleged the News of the World had placed him under surveillance, and in 2012 he won a pay out from the paper’s parent company, News International.

His family thanked NHS doctors and nurses who cared for him after his stroke in 2019 and the “dedicated staff at the care home where he passed away after latterly living with Alzheimer’s”.

“As you can imagine, our family needs to process our grief so we respectfully request time and space to mourn in private.”