John Prescott served as deputy prime minister from 1997 to 2007.

A major figure in the Labour Party for decades, Prescott served for 40 years in the House of Commons (1970-2010) and was an important working-class voice within the New Labour government. After leaving the commons, he was appointed to the peerage as Lord Prescott.

Prescott died on 20 November 2024 at the age of 86 following a battle with Alzheimer’s.

John Prescott’s rise to prominence (1970-1997)

Prescott entered parliament as the Labour MP for Hull East at the 1970 general election.

Prescott was an opposition spokesperson throughout the leaderships of Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock, serving as shadow secretary of state for transport (1983-1984 and 1988-1993), shadow secretary of state for employment (1984-1987 and 1993-1994), and shadow secretary of state for energy (1987-1988).

Prescott stood as a candidate in the 1992 deputy leadership contest, but placed second with 28.2% of the electoral college vote. Margaret Beckett emerged victorious with 57.3% of the vote.

In 1994, following the sudden death of Labour leader John Smith, Prescott stood again – in both the leadership and deputy leadership elections. He placed second in the leadership contest but won the deputy leadership election, defeating Beckett.

In the leadership contest, Tony Blair, the shadow home secretary, won a commanding 57.0% of the electoral college vote, securing majorities in all three sections (52.3% among affiliates, 58.2% among constituency members, and 60.5% among MPs/MEPs). Prescott came second with 24.1%, and Beckett third on 18.9%.

Prescott’s victory in the deputy election created a leadership team that balanced the party’s “modernising” and more traditional wings. Throughout Blair’s leadership of the party, but especially during the opposition years from 1994 to 1997, Prescott played a crucial role as a link between New Labour and the party’s trade union base.

Prescott also acted as a mediator in the often tumultuous relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown.

John Prescott: deputy prime minister (1997-2007)

In the wake of Labour’s landslide victory at the 1997 general election, Prescott was appointed as deputy prime minister. He was also given the title of secretary of state for environment, transport and the regions, heading a new “super ministry”.

This department was later broken up and Prescott was given the title of first secretary of state in 2001. The following year, Prescott assumed the title of secretary of state for local government and the regions.

Prescott remained deputy prime minister throughout Blair’s tenure in office.

In 1997, Prescott was Britain’s lead negotiator for the Kyoto protocol, the first international treaty to set legally binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions.

During the 2001 general election campaign, Prescott punched a protester who had thrown an egg at him during a Labour Party general election campaign event in Rhyl, north Wales. The confrontation took place against a backdrop of protests by farmers and rural communities over issues including low agricultural wages, the government’s handling of the foot-and-mouth disease crisis and a proposed ban on fox hunting. Prescott, upon stepping off his campaign bus, the Prescott Express, was greeted by 30 protesters carrying placards. One poster bore the message “Average farming wage in Wales £75 a week”. Then, Craig Evans, a 29-year-old local farm worker, threw an egg that struck the deputy prime minister on the side of the head. Prescott, a former amateur boxer, immediately retaliated. He turned and struck Evans with a left jab to the jaw.

Prescott, 62, reportedly refused to apologise. Meanwhile, the melee overshadowed the launch of Labour’s 44-page manifesto, entitled Ambitions for Britain, in Birmingham.

Instead, the deputy prime minister stated: “I got off my bus into an already hostile crowd. I walked through all the jostling and I was attacked by an individual. In the melee that followed I clearly defended myself.

“I believe that someone is now being questioned by the police and it would be quite wrong of me to add any further comment.”

Tony Blair later attempted to play down Prescott’s punch, declaring: “John is John”.

Asked about his deputy, the prime minister told a press conference: “In respect of John, of course it would have been better if the whole thing hadn’t happened, but I want to say something to you about John Prescott.

“You could not wish for a deputy more loyal, more true and more decent. He cares about his country and he cares passionately about his politics but John is John and I’m lucky to have him as my deputy.”

The scuffle subsequently earned Prescott the nickname “Two Jabs” – a reference to his existing moniker “Two Jags” (the deputy prime minister was fond of his luxury cars).

In an interview with the Guardian in 2019, Prescott said: “When I do die, after 50 years in politics, all they will show on the news is 60 seconds of me thumping a fellow in Wales.”

In March 2003, Prescott voted in favour of the government motion authorising military action against Iraq. The vote, one of the most contentious in recent parliamentary history, gave Blair the authority to join the US-led invasion.

Prescott suffered a significant blow in November 2004 when voters rejected a plan for an assembly in the North East England devolution referendum. The deputy prime minister assumed a leading role in the campaign. Speaking after the result was declared, Prescott conceded that the devolution cause had suffered an “emphatic” defeat.

At a press conference in Sunderland, Prescott responded: “I might be disappointed. It is an emphatic defeat for the possibility of an elected regional assembly. The North-east public have answered in an emphatic way. I am a democrat and I accept that.”

Prescott subsequently ruled out further referendums in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber for the foreseeable future.

In 2006, Prescott admitted in the press to having had a two-year affair with his then-diary secretary, Tracey Temple between 2002 and 2004. At the Labour Party conference later that year, Prescott apologised publicly, telling attendees: “I know in the last year, I let myself down, I let you down. So conference, I just want to say sorry”.

In the aftermath, he lost most of his departmental responsibilities but retained the title of deputy prime minister.

Prescott stood down as deputy leader of the Labour Party and deputy prime minister in June 2007, leaving high office alongside Blair.

Prescott’s late-political career

Prescott was made a life peer after leaving the House of Commons at the 2010 general election.

On receiving the appointment, Lord Prescott said: “I welcome the opportunity to continue to campaign in parliament for jobs, social justice and the environment as well as to hold this Con-Lib government to account”.

Lord Prescott remained an active, if sometimes critical, voice within the Labour Party from the Lords.

In 2015, it was announced that Lord Prescott would return to an advisory role as an unpaid adviser on climate change to the then Labour leader, Ed Miliband.

Lord Prescott was also open in his support for Jeremy Corbyn during the 2017 general election campaign.

Lord Prescott suffered a stroke in June 2019, which affected his ability to campaign actively in the December 2019 election. He continued to make contributions in the House of Lords after his recovery.

John Prescott: death and tributes

Prescott died at the age of 86 on 20 November 2024.

Tony Blair has said that he is “devastated” by the news of Prescott’s passing. Blair described his former deputy as “one of the most talented people I ever encountered in politics” who could “talk in the bluntest and sometimes bluest language.”

In a statement, Blair said: “He was from proud traditional working-class stock yet understood instinctively and completely the aspirations of that class and their desire to better themselves.

“It is no exaggeration to say the Labour Party could never have won three consecutive full terms without John.”

Keir Starmer, the prime minister, called Prescott a “true giant of the Labour movement” and one of the “key architects” of the last Labour government.

Former US vice president Al Gore, who worked with Prescott on the Kyoto Protocol climate change agreement, also paid tribute to the former deputy prime minister. Gore said he had “never worked with anyone in politics – on my side of the pond or his – quite like John Prescott”.

Gore stated: “He possessed an inherent ability to connect with people about the issues that mattered to them – a talent that others spend years studying and cultivating, but that was second nature to him.

“He fought like hell to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol and was an unwavering champion of climate action for decades to come. I’m forever grateful to John for that commitment to solving the climate crisis and will miss him as a dear friend.”

Before politics

John Leslie Prescott was born in Prestatyn, Wales, on 31 May 1938. The son of a railway signalman, Prescott grew up mainly in Yorkshire and Cheshire. He failed the 11-plus examination and attended Grange Secondary Modern School in Ellesmere Port, leaving school at 15.

Prescott worked as a steward and waiter for the Cunard Line in the Merchant Navy, becoming an active trade union official within the National Union of Seamen.

Prescott’s trade union activity led him to adult education at Ruskin College, where he gained a diploma in economics and politics in 1965. He then went on to study for a BSc in economics and economic history at the University of Hull.

Family

Prescott married Pauline Tilston in 1961. He and his wife Pauline, Lady Prescott, had two sons.

One of their sons, David Prescott, worked in Jeremy Corbyn’s office during his time as party leader.

Trivia: Prescott and Eden

As a waiter in 1957, Prescott served the former Conservative prime minister, Anthony Eden, only nine days after his resignation. “What were your first words to Sir Anthony when you met him?”, Prescott was later asked. “Good morning, sir”, he replied, “I was the waiter!”.

In an interview with the BBC in 2007, Prescott recalled how Eden came across as “an old-fashioned Tory gent”.

But Prescott added: “He was top class. I was bottom class – on a ship you certainly feel that.”