Baby-kisser who performed function in Labour comeback

John Prescott used to be an old-style political bruiser who performed an important function within the New Labour venture.

He scorned what he referred to as “the pretty other people” – the lads in good fits with pink roses and cell phones who was the brand new face of Labour.

But he used to be a very powerful determine within the marketing campaign to promote modernisation to the birthday celebration and pave the best way for Labour to regain energy after 18 years in opposition with Tony Blair’s historical landslide victory in 1997.

Against the tip of his political profession, a chain of embarrassments – together with an affair and allegations of ministerial impropriety – threatened to tarnish his salt-of-the-earth symbol.

However as deputy top minister for 10 years and a part of the crew that received 3 successive election victories, his place in Labour historical past is protected.

John Leslie Prescott used to be born in Prestatyn, Flintshire, on 31 Would possibly 1938. His father used to be a railway signalman and his mom got here from a mining circle of relatives.

Even if his circle of relatives left Wales when he used to be 4, he remained pleased with his heritage and all the time thought to be himself Welsh.

He was a trainee chef on leaving college at 15 after which labored for 8 years as a boat’s steward on passenger liners, turning into lively within the Nationwide Union of Seamen.

In 1962, he went to Ruskin School, Oxford, the place he were given a degree in economics and politics, and later to Hull College to check for an economics level.

Energetic within the service provider sailors’ strike of 1966, he served as an respectable with the Nationwide Union of Seamen for 2 years earlier than his election, in 1970, as MP for Hull East, subsidized through the union.

John Prescott was a Labour frontbench spokesman in Would possibly 1979 and joined the shadow cupboard in 1983, gaining a name as a pugnacious and a professional spokesman on shipping.

The similar 12 months his showman’s instincts noticed him swim two miles down the River Thames to focus on opposition to Margaret Thatcher’s govt coverage of dumping nuclear waste at sea.

Nevertheless it used to be the Labour chief John Smith who in the end gave John Prescott political room to respire, with a key function in promoting modernisation to the birthday celebration and unions.

It used to be John Smith who kick-started Labour’s gradual go back to energy, overturning most of the birthday celebration’s maximum liked ideas in a force to make it electable once more.

And John Prescott, together with his robust union hyperlinks and no-nonsense method, presented necessary improve, now not least within the abolition of the union block vote that have been Labour coverage for years.

When Tony Blair was chief, following John Smith’s premature demise in 1994, he too recognised the significance of holding John Prescott on board.

The Hull East MP was deputy chief and later deputy top minister with large departmental duty over shipping and the surroundings.

He pledged to create an built-in shipping gadget and stated his good fortune can be measured through a discount in other people wanting to make use of a automotive.

This led to him substantial embarrassment when, on the 1999 Labour convention, he used his ministerial automotive – a Jaguar – for a 200-yard adventure again to his lodge.

In conventional Prescott genre, he claimed it used to be so his spouse Pauline’s hair would now not get blown about.

However the flesh presser, who additionally owned a Jaguar himself, used to be quickly dubbed “two Jags” within the press.

He as soon as described himself because the guard at the Labour teach – in a position to gradual it down if it moved off the rails. But his forged working-class credentials added tough improve to Tony Blair and the Labour modernisers.

He campaigned passionately in opposition to the Conservative coverage of privatising Britain’s railways and used to be reported to were livid when Labour didn’t undertake a coverage of renationalisation when returned to energy.

His coverage of making elected regional assemblies to supervise the brand new regional building businesses additionally hit the buffers, when, in a referendum in a pilot house in England’s North East, 78% of other people rejected the theory.

He additionally confronted opposition over his so-called Pathfinder venture, designed to supply 1000’s of recent properties.

As a part of the coverage, about 200,000 properties within the North of England have been demolished, which, critics stated, can have been renovated at a lot much less price.

His interest and burly genre of supply have been consistent options.

He time and again described New Labour’s venture as turning in “conventional values in a contemporary atmosphere” – an impressive if reasonably intangible idea.

Mocked through some for mangling his syntax, he incessantly nonetheless controlled to inject humour into tricky scenarios – akin to when he used to be criticised for accusing a feminine French minister of being too drained to grasp the intricacies of an atmosphere summit.

“As as to whether I’m accused of being a macho guy – moi?” he informed the Commons. “I will have to say the commentary leaves me maximum gutted.”

He hit the headlines all the way through the 2001 common election after he used to be filmed throwing a punch at a member of the general public who had thrown an egg at him all the way through a protest in Rhyl, Flintshire.

John Prescott stated he had acted in self-defence and police refused to take to any extent further motion. Next newspaper polls recommended the general public supported his response.

In later days, John Prescott reportedly needed to act as a peacemaker between Tony Blair and the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, as hypothesis in regards to the succession to the management ebbed and flowed.

His personal remark in a newspaper, that the “tectonic plates” within the Labour Birthday celebration have been transferring, gave upward thrust to tips of manoeuvring inside the cupboard.

And when he used to be noticed sharing a automotive with Gordon Brown and preventing off at a Scottish oyster bar, the rumours that Tony Blair used to be about to face down intensified.

On the other hand, as his profession as an MP neared its finish, the headlines surrounding John Prescott focused on his personal lifestyles.

In 2006, he admitted to an affair together with his former secretary Tracey Temple, which resulted in a raft of lurid tales.

In a cupboard reshuffle quickly after the revelations emerged, John Prescott used to be stripped of his division, even though stored on as deputy top minister and allowed to retain his wage and grace-and-favour properties.

However, in an additional embarrassment, he felt pressured to surrender his nation pile, Dorneywood, after being pictured on its lawns enjoying croquet together with his personnel – a picture at odds together with his down-to-earth recognition.

It used to be later printed he had visited america ranch of businessman Philip Anschutz – whose corporate took over the working of the Millennium Dome and who used to be bidding to construct Britain’s first super-casino.

Critics stated there used to be a war of pastime. John Prescott, who met Mr Anschutz seven instances, didn’t claim the consult with for 11 months. He sooner or later stated he had long past as a result of he favored cowboy motion pictures.

The Commons Requirements and Privileges Committee dominated the ministerial code have been damaged for the reason that go back and forth had now not been declared right away.

In a while after Tony Blair stated he can be stepping down as top minister, John Prescott introduced he would relinquish his function as deputy.

He ended his time in govt without a ministerial temporary of his personal and used to be noticed through many as a peripheral determine.

To the wonder of lots of his supporters, he authorised a peerage in 2010 in spite of reportedly having as soon as stated: “I do not wish to be a member of the Space of Lords. I will be able to now not settle for it.”

He defended the verdict as a result of it might give him endured affect over environmental coverage and he refused to regard the pink benches as an upmarket retirement house, the usage of them as a platform to hold on campaigning.

He endured to serve within the Lords till July of this 12 months, when he used to be got rid of for non-attendance – bringing down the curtain on a parliamentary profession of greater than 50 years.

His maximum tough interventions in Lords debates concerned attacking the federal government’s reaction to the phone-hacking scandal.

For Lord Prescott, the subject used to be non-public – his attorneys alleged the Information of the Global had positioned him underneath surveillance, and in 2012 he received a pay out from the paper’s father or mother corporate, Information World.

He used to be again at the stump once more in 2012 when he stood as a candidate in Humberside within the elections for the brand new place of work of police and crime commissioner.

He used to be stated to be dissatisfied when he misplaced out to a Conservative opponent on the second one spherical of voting.

John Prescott remained a Labour loyalist at center.

Whilst in the end distancing himself from Tony Blair’s choice to visit struggle in Iraq, he defended his former boss’ legacy and used to be similarly supportive of the other leaders that adopted him.

He additionally steered the then-Labour chief Ed Miliband within the run as much as the 2015 election.

He used to be a long way from a herbal bedfellow of Jeremy Corbyn however insisted the left-wing campaigner – who antagonistic the majority of what New Labour stood for – had “proved himself”, and prompt dissident MPs to improve him.

His son David – who himself stood unsuccessfully for Parliament – used to be even a part of Jeremy Corbyn’s crew.

And talking at Labour’s 2017 convention – the 51st he had attended – he stated the birthday celebration used to be at the trail again to govt and had a “in reality thrilling” long term.

In 2019, he suffered a stroke and used to be taken to Hull Royal Infirmary. However his former Labour colleague, Alan Johnson, stated there have been “no indicators of him slowing down in any respect”.

To the very finish, he represented a breed with the exception of lots of his contemporaries – a Labour MP who had reduce his campaigning enamel in a trades union quite than as a political adviser and who believed political ideas needed to be married to energy.