John Leslie Prescott was born on 31 Could 1938 in Prestatyn, Wales, to his mother and father John and Phyllis.
He got here from working-class roots, together with his father engaged on the railways and his grandfather a miner.
In his autobiography, Pulling No Punches, he described his father as an “old-fashioned socialist” who “believed in fairness and equality”, however that he additionally had a “meanness” and made his mom “very unhappy” at occasions.
However he described her as “just as strong a character as he was”. She additionally got here from a socialist background – along with her personal father being a union department official for 50 years.
A yr after his beginning and together with his mom pregnant together with his brother Ray, his father was known as as much as struggle within the struggle and in 1940, after being shot within the knee, he needed to have his leg amputated.
By the age of 4 and now with a sister, Daybreak, he had moved to Yorkshire for his father to take up a put up as a controller again on the railways, simply in time to choose up his trademark accent.
He attended Brinsworth Manor College within the village of the identical identify, which had an air-raid shelter within the playground.
“I don’t remember being scared of the bombs, or of the Germans,” he wrote. “It was quite exciting really for boys of my age. Being at war was all we’d ever know.”
By the top of the struggle, three had turn out to be 4 when his second sister, Vivien, was born.
Prescott mentioned he was “never very good at lessons or very interested, just sort of average”, however he was getting an schooling in what was to come back, watching his father turn out to be concerned in native union issues, turn out to be a councillor and ultimately chairman of the authority.
He failed the 11 plus examination to get into the native grammar, as an alternative attending Grange Secondary Trendy College in Ellesmere Port after one other household transfer, and he mentioned “the chip on his shoulder got bigger” consequently.
He took up boxing and performed components within the college performs, however wrote: “I had no idea whatsoever what I wanted to do in life. I never had a fantasy of being an engine driver, or a pilot or a footballer, none of the usual schoolboy things.
“I did not take into consideration the long run. I took every day because it got here and by no means apprehensive about tomorrow.”
The Merchant Navy, joining Labour and marriage
After a fifth child, Adrian, was added to the family, his parents eventually divorced, and both re-married.
Prescott left school at 15 with no qualifications and began working life as a hotel porter back in North Wales, before becoming a commis chef and being sent by a hotel to catering college.
He was suspended for a few months after a row about the poor conditions and pay with his bosses, and after two years set his sights on something bigger.
Prescott joined the Merchant Navy in 1955 where he began as a waiter, eventually conquering his seasickness, and travelling the world.
He regularly saw famous people on his voyages, including former Prime Minister Anthony Eden shortly after he resigned in 1957, when he travelled by boat to New Zealand to “get away from all the things”.
It was around this time, in 1956, that he first joined the Labour Party, aged 17, leafleting and campaigning on the doorstep around big elections.
On these lengthy journeys, he took up boxing again as the crews put on bouts to entertain the passengers, although the successes weren’t marked with grand prizes.
“I bear in mind profitable two bottles of beer and two hours’ extra time – and I used to be offered with my massive winnings by Sir Anthony,” said Prescott.
It was during this time that he met his future wife Pauline “Tilly” Tilston at a bus cease when house in Chester from his journey to New Zealand.
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Prescott met his spouse Pauline at a bus cease. Pic: PA
“I went across, we chatted and I asked her if she’d like to go to the pictures,” he recalled. “She said yes, so we made a date.
“We had been each on the rebound, so it was lucky timing. Cannot bear in mind what the movie was, however I do know she talked throughout it and I used to be a bit embarrassed.”
After a courtship that involved a lot of dancing at jazz clubs, the pair married in 1961, despite his brother Ray losing the rings on the day.
Prescott became an active unionist in the National Union of Seamen (NUS), taking over from his catering studies, but was critical of the way it was run.
Wildcat strikes were taking place in ports up and down the country over working conditions, but he focused on fighting the injustices within the organisation, meaning he was unpopular with strikers and union bosses, as well as captains.
But he led reform in the union and, at 22, gave his first public speech to 2,000 men, winning them over.
His ambition was to be a full-time union official “to alter the construction, do away with the lifeless wooden and enhance circumstances for all seamen”, and eventually his union bosses suggested he apply to study at Ruskin College – well-known for running courses for union officials – saying: “They needed me out of their hair.”
But despite winning a scholarship, a run-in with a union boss saw it taken off him, meaning he had to fund the diploma in economics and politics himself.
Fatherhood and campaigning
On 5 April 1963, his first child, Johnathan, was born – the same year he started at Ruskin, having managed to secure funding from the local council by claiming he wanted to become a schoolteacher.
He said it was the happiest time of his life, even if he didn’t always fit in.
“I felt no reference to Oxford college students, getting p****d, staying up all evening,” he wrote. “I used to be there to review, to be taught, not doss about.”
In his second year at Ruskin, Prescott was also named as the Labour Party agent in Chester, which he said was his “first actual expertise of party-political work”.
After he got his diploma, he returned home to Chester and after a brief stint working for the General and Municipal Workers Union, he went on to study economics and economic history at the University of Hull aged 27 after finding a loophole back into the NUS.
This time, Prescott brought his family with him and rather than throwing himself into student politics, he got more involved at a local level, campaigning in a by-election in Hull North.
When Harold Wilson called a snap election in 1966, the unions sought out candidates for what he described as “no hoper” seats where Labour didn’t stand a chance, and he took the opportunity while carrying on with his studies.
“I did not win, after all,” he wrote. “We received 12,000 votes whereas the Tories romped house with 22,000, however I did enhance our place by growing our share of the vote.”
He continued at Hull, eventually graduating with a third, but he also continued his work for the union, helping organise a strike of National Union of Seamen members over their hours and pay, leading to nearly 20,000 of them walking off their ships.
But come 1968, it was back to the campaign trail, with Prescott selected to run for the seat of Kingston upon Hull East at the 1970 election.
“I hadn’t truthfully ever deliberate to be an MP,” he said. “It had by no means been my primary ambition, both once I was at sea or working for the union.
“But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that if I got in I might have a better opportunity to improve the conditions of seamen and repeal the old master-servant merchant shipping legislation.”
Aged 32, he beat his Conservative rival Norman Lamont – who later gained his personal seat and ended up as chancellor underneath John Main – by 22,000 votes on the day his spouse was attributable to give beginning to their second youngster, however David arrived 4 days late.
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Prescott pictured in his workplace after changing into an MP. Pic: PA
Rising as an MP – and his love of ‘Jags’
Throughout his first parliament, Prescott targeted on his campaigns, largely the plights of seafarers, and shortly discovered himself on the frontbench as Labour’s delivery spokesman.
He additionally held delegate roles in Europe regardless of his scepticism of the establishment, performed for the Home’s soccer group, and located himself sharing a flat with Labour stalwart Dennis Skinner, together with his spouse referring to the pair as “the odd couple”.
At Skinner’s request, he joined the Tribune group of left-wing MPs, however nonetheless had an perspective of “changing from within” the system, therefore his EU position.
And he was already getting stick for his love of Jaguars – one thing that performed an element in his nickname “two jags” later in his profession.
“People have always made remarks about my Jag, about someone like me, from my background, driving such a car, but I could never see the problem,” he wrote.
“I remember Austin Mitchell, MP for Grimsby, saying to me one day, ‘how do you drive a Jaguar, John?’. ‘Easy,’ I said. ‘Put the key in the ignition and away you go. How do you drive yours?'”
Come the subsequent parliament in 1974, he took his first step on the ministerial ladder, changing into a parliamentary non-public secretary (PPS) for Commerce Secretary Peter Shore.
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Prescott featured in plenty of Labour shadow cupboards – right here he’s in Neil Kinnock’s group (seated on the again, on the left). Pic: PA
He checked he would nonetheless have the liberty to pursue his personal campaigns, however Wilson had different concepts, and after two years he instructed the then prime minister to “stick your PPS” earlier than storming out.
However this left Prescott free to play a giant half in ending the Cod Wars between Iceland and the UK, in addition to extra localised points, such because the riots at Hull Jail.
Thrown again into opposition within the Nineteen Eighties, and now into his 40s, a number of the similar campaigns continued and he turned down the possibility of being European Commissioner.
He supported Michael Foot as celebration chief however says in his guide he quickly realised it had been the fallacious choice, saying whereas he was a “wonderful” man, he was “not a party leader”.
Assembly Blair and Brown – and taking up Thatcher
Throughout Foot’s tenure, Prescott served because the shadow spokesman for transport, preventing in opposition to Margaret Thatcher’s plans to privatise buses and trains, and as shadow spokesman for regional affairs and devolution.
However there was nonetheless time to marketing campaign on maritime points and in 1983, after an uproar about nuclear waste being dumped within the seas, Greenpeace and unions turned to him to spotlight the difficulty.
“They wanted me to swim down the Thames,” he wrote.
So wearing frogman’s gear, with a masks, oxygen and in a moist swimsuit, he did simply that – swimming two miles down the river earlier than a ship picked him up, then strolling in his full garb to Downing Avenue to ship the petition.
“It made a great series of photos,” wrote Prescott. “But, of course, I had a very serious purpose.”
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Prescott holds up a letter for Margaret Thatcher as a part of a protest in opposition to the federal government’s coverage of dumping nuclear waste. Pic: PA
Because the Nineteen Eighties wore on, Labour’s far left gave strategy to Neil Kinnock’s management and the pair had been at loggerheads over the miners’ strike.
Kinnock needed to crack down on the unions whereas Prescott joined the picket strains because the miners had supported the seamens’ strikes he had been concerned with years earlier.
They fell out over different points as properly, together with the creation of public sector jobs.
However Prescott remained on the frontbench, heading again to move as a shadow minister earlier than taking up the employment temporary – an enormous challenge of the last decade that the celebration deliberate to struggle the election on.
Kinnock additionally persuaded him to run for the Nationwide Government Committee “aiming to keep Ken Livingstone out”, which led to 25 years on the NEC.
It was additionally this time that two massive figures that may find yourself defining his profession entered parliament – Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
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Prescott started to bond with Gordon Brown early on, however thought-about him one of many ‘lovely folks’. Pic: PA
Prescott and Brown bonded over their perception in Scottish devolution, however the pair weren’t a part of the primary marketing campaign teams and he had little to do with them of their early years.
“Kinnock recognised their worth very early on,” mentioned Prescott. “But to me, they were still just OK guys – not offensive,
“To us previous arms, from commerce union backgrounds, they had been a brand new form of Labour politician. I known as them the Lovely Individuals… I used to be firmly previous Labour and so they had been a brand new breed.”
But it was John Smith who impressed Prescott most, saying he was a moderniser and “capable of join with all components of the celebration – undoubtedly greater than Blair or Brown”.
In 1988, he challenged Kinnock’s deputy, Roy Hattersley, for the job, leaving the Labour chief livid. However in the end he failed, getting simply 24% of the vote in comparison with Hattersley’s 67%.
Prescott nonetheless remained on the shadow frontbench, transferring this time to the power temporary earlier than but once more returning to move – power went to Blair and Brown had taken on shadow chancellor.
However come 1992 Kinnock was out after yet one more defeat on the basic election – changed by the spectacular Smith – and Prescott failed once more to win the deputy management race, with Margaret Beckett taking the put up.
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Margaret Beckett beat Prescott to turn out to be deputy chief. Pic: PA
He did, nonetheless, start attending to know Blair and Brown higher, describing how the pair chatted to him “nervously” for half an hour – “clearly an attempt to improve relations, perhaps at the suggestion of John Smith”.
And whereas he continued to disagree with the brand new chief on plenty of positions – Prescott described himself as anti-EU, for instance – he mentioned it by no means spoiled their relationship, maintaining him on the celebration’s frontbench.
And lots of level to Prescott’s closing speech of the Labour Occasion convention in 1993, talking up for Smith over the one member one vote system, as a key second in his profession.
After Smith’s premature loss of life in 1994, Prescott ran for each the management and deputy management.
However whereas he misplaced out to the younger upstart Blair for the highest job, he did safe second in command – giving a working class and extra commerce unionist sympathetic stability to Blair’s incoming New Labour methods.
“I knew I had no chance [against Blair],” he wrote: “But it gave me a chance to put forward my policies.”
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Tony Blair and Prescott had been the odd couple on the prime of New Labour. Pic: PA
Within the run-up to the 1997 election, the chief and deputy didn’t all the time see eye to eye behind the scenes, whether or not or not it’s over nationalisation or rebranding as “New Labour”.
He even thought-about resigning when the so-called Lovely Individuals excluded him from conferences on election technique.
However he stayed to struggle his trigger and are available 1997, having been promised the put up by Blair, his assist was rewarded after a historic win for Labour on the poll field with the posts of deputy prime minister and secretary of state for the surroundings, transport and the areas.
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Prescott lastly will get his place across the cupboard desk. Pic: PA
The so-called “super ministry” led to a raft of insurance policies underneath his identify, however one of many main ones he brokered was the Kyoto Protocol.
The United Nations treaty noticed 41 international locations plus the EU signal as much as cut back their greenhouse fuel emissions to beneath Nineteen Nineties ranges, and was seen as essentially the most important environmental treaty ever negotiated.
However maybe the incident that made Prescott a family identify got here slightly later – and we aren’t even speaking about him having a bucket of icy water thrown over him by Chumbawamba on the 1998 Brit awards…
That punch, an affair and following Blair out
In 2001, he was out on the marketing campaign path in Rhyl throughout what is named one of many least contentious elections of contemporary occasions.
He was attending a Labour rally stuffed with supporters on the day the celebration had launched its manifesto, however first he needed to get by way of a bunch of rural protesters outdoors that included one man, Craig Evans.
As he moved by way of the group, Evans launched an egg straight on the deputy prime minister’s head, and in flip, Prescott turned and, in his personal phrases, gave him “an instinctive boxer’s jab with the left fist”.
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The John Prescott ‘punch’ second from 2001
After a scuffle, the pair had been pulled aside and he carried on with the occasion, though witnesses mentioned he appeared very shaken by the incident.
Recounting his dialog with Blair afterwards, Prescott mentioned: “When I spoke to Tony I explained that it wasn’t my fault, I hadn’t started it, but he said I shouldn’t have done it, even if I had been provoked. After all, I was the deputy prime minister.
“‘I is likely to be’, I mentioned, ‘however I’m additionally an peculiar bloke, and an peculiar bloke would react as I did’.”
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Prescott was surrounded by protesters in Rhyl the place he threw that punch. Pic: PA
It was not his solely look within the entrance pages by way of the Blair years, nonetheless.
In 2006, he admitted to having had a two-year affair together with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple, telling the Each day Mirror the pair had met at an workplace celebration and subsequently held secret conferences in his government-owned flat.
“I’ll always feel guilty and ashamed,” he wrote in his memoirs. “I made a terrible mistake, but let’s leave it at that.
“I do know I can by no means make it as much as Pauline. She has been a rock and put up with rather a lot due to me. However she has all the time stood by me.”
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Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Tracey Temple pictured earlier than information broke of their affair
Quickly after his affair got here to gentle and a disastrous efficiency on the native elections, a reshuffle happened and he misplaced his division.
When Blair left Quantity 10 in 2007, Prescott resigned as properly. He mentioned he felt “sort of displaced, not knowing what to do with myself, where I fit in” and was dubbed “Mr Grumpy” by his youngsters.
He stayed on as an MP till the subsequent election, however stepped down from the cupboard in 2008, writing his biography alongside British writer Hunter Davies – and dealing with accusations by some critics that he timed its launch to wreck the brand new incumbent in Quantity 10, Mr Brown.
However come the subsequent election, he was again on his battle bus – a personalized white transit van – travelling across the nation and telling the general public Brown was a “global giant”.
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John Prescott on his battle bus in 2010
Consuming dysfunction honesty, bills and the Lords
Earlier than that although, and forward of being awarded a life peerage in 2010 to turn out to be Baron Prescott, of Kingston upon Hull within the County of East Yorkshire, he had a number of extra brushes with the media.
In 2008, forward of his memoirs being printed, he revealed to The Instances that he had suffered from the consuming dysfunction bulimia nervosa from the Nineteen Eighties till 2007.
Within the guide, he wrote: “I’ve never confessed it before. Out of shame, I suppose, or embarrassment – or just because it’s such a strange thing for someone like me to confess to.
“Individuals usually affiliate it with younger ladies – anorexic ladies, fashions attempting to maintain their weight down, or ladies in worrying conditions, like Princess Diana.”
He put it down to stress, adding: “I wasn’t doing it on a regular basis, and there could be gaps of weeks and months, however throughout these years once we first received into energy, I let issues get on prime of me and took refuge in stuffing my face.”
Prescott additionally turned his hand to documentaries in 2008 and 2009, making two BBC Two sequence in regards to the class system in Britain and the North/South divide in England.
However in Could of the identical yr, he hit the entrance pages once more for his half within the MPs bills scandal, with the Each day Telegraph revealing he had claimed £312 for becoming mock Tudor beams to his constituency house, and for 2 new bathroom seats in as a few years.
As soon as within the Lords, it did not cease him from attempting for a number of extra elected positions. In 2010, he was defeated within the contest to turn out to be treasurer for the Labour Occasion.
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Lord Prescott made his final look in parliament in November 2022
And in 2012, he tried to turn out to be Humberside Police’s first Police and Crime Commissioner – however regardless of getting essentially the most first desire votes, misplaced out within the second spherical of counting to the Conservative candidate.
Prescott did make a quick political comeback as an adviser to Ed Miliband in 2015, but it surely was shortly earlier than Labour misplaced its second basic election in a row.
Lately, extra TV appearances took up his time, together with his personal sequence known as Made in Yorkshire, one other known as British Made, and a cameo in BBC comedy favorite Gavin and Stacey.
However he started to battle extra well being points and in June 2019 was admitted to Hull Royal Infirmary with a stroke.
Prescott’s public appearances turned rarer after that, and his final look within the Home of Lords was in November 2022, speaking about considered one of his nice passions – the struggle in opposition to local weather change.
He was additionally nonetheless glad to nod to his headline hitters when posing for a photograph with comic Omid Djalili a number of months earlier.
And maybe it will likely be that spirit, that character, and that eager proper hook, that can see the long-standing, passionate and mould-breaking politician remembered for a very long time to come back.
