UK former deputy PM John Prescott dies aged 86

Tony Blair leads tributes to ‘incredibly direct’ deputy, known for not pulling his punches – on one occasion, literally.

Britain’s former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has died following a battle with Alzheimer’s, his family announced.

Prescott, an ex-merchant seaman who became a key figure in Tony Blair’s New Labour government, died “peacefully” in a care home at the age of 86, his family said on Thursday.

Blair, prime minister between 1997 and 2007, led tributes to his former deputy, calling him an “incredibly direct communicator” and adding that there was “no one quite like him in British politics”.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Blair said Prescott, known for his gritty, no-nonsense style brand of politics, had a “fantastic gut instinct ” and that he held a “huge, genuine affection for him”.

Prescott, a prominent trade unionist proud of his working-class roots, was viewed by many as a bridge between Labour Party traditionalists and Blair’s revamped New Labour, which promoted a “Third Way” between centre-left social policy and centre-right capitalism.

Prescott, who was frequently lampooned by the media for mispronouncing words or making grammatical mistakes – a trait that many said belied his fierce intellect – was nicknamed “Two Jags” for having two luxury Jaguar cars: one personal, one for ministerial duties.

Criticised for using the ministerial car for a 180-metre (200-yard) journey back to his hotel at the 1999 Labour conference, he claimed – with his typical bluntness – that it was to prevent his wife Pauline’s hair from being blown about in the wind.

Campaigning for the 2001 general election, he punched a man who threw an egg at him, an incident that generated headlines around the world and prompted journalists to amend his nickname to “two jabs”.

Asked in a news conference the next day about the assault, Blair said: “John is John.”

John Prescott (left), known as a Labour Party traditionalist with strong roots in the trade union movement, greets former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during a general election campaign event in Kingston upon Hull, England, in 2017 [File: Oli Scarff/AFP]

Blair told the Today programme that, while some criticised Prescott’s behaviour, “there were other people saying ‘yeah, but he had this egg slammed on his head and he turned around and whacked the guy’, and a lot of people think, ‘well, fair enough’.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer lauded Prescott as “a staunch defender of working people”, who would be remembered for his “conviction, courage, and strength of character”.

“So much of John’s work set the path for those of us fortunate enough to follow. From leading climate negotiations to fighting regional inequality, his legacy will live on well beyond his lifetime,” said Starmer.

Prescott was born on May 31, 1938, in the seaside town of Prestatyn in Wales, rising from his humble beginnings as the son of a railway signalman and a maid through the trade union movement.

He studied politics at Oxford’s Ruskin College as a mature student, later serving as deputy prime minister throughout Blair’s decade in office.

Though he left Wales when he was four, he always considered himself Welsh.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies