FORMER deputy prime minister John Prescott has died aged 86 following a battle with Alzheimer’s.
He had been living in a care home following a stroke in 2019 and passed away “peacefully” surrounded by family.
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In a statement announcing his death, Lord Prescott’s wife and two sons said: “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.”
The family added: “John spent his life trying to improve the lives of others, fighting for social justice and protecting the environment.
“He did so from his time as a waiter on the cruise liners to becoming Britain’s longest serving deputy prime minister.
“John dearly loved his home of Hull and representing its people in Parliament for 40 years was his greatest honour.”
He served as deputy PM from 1997 to 2007 as a member of the Labour Party.
Prescott was a key New Labour power broker who often managed the tense relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
He was first elected MP for Kingston upon Hull East in 1970 – holding the seat for almost 40 years
He first joined the shadow cabinet in 1983 with the transport brief, before quickly rising through Labour ranks.
As deputy PM Prescott played a big role negotiating the 1997 Kyoto climate change agreement.
And he was widely seen as a working-class tribune who ensured Labour’s union backers went along with Blair’s centrist reforms.
But he remains most famous for punching a protester who threw an egg at him during a rally in 2001.
The politician later joked about the incident quipping: “There was only one punch.
“Tony Blair rang me and he said ‘Are you OK?’ and I said ‘Yes’, and he said ‘Well, what happened?’.
“I said ‘I was just carrying out your orders. You told us to connect with the electorate, so I did’.”
And he was nicknamed “two Jags” after it emerged he both owned a Jaguar while had the run of a second ministerial car.
In 2015, he was banned from speeding after being caught doing 60mph in a 50mph zone in one of his beloved Jags.
After spending his MP career criticising the Lords as an “offence to democracy”, he shrugged off hypocrisy claims when appointed – saying he accepted a peerage because his wife Pauline wanted him to.
After his time as deputy PM Prescott took a short break from politics – before coming back to advise Tony Blair.
Prescott left the Lords this July after a stroke in 2019 stopped him attending or voting.
He was born in the Welsh seaside town of Prestatyn and first worked as a steward in the Merchant Navy.
Prescott then studied at Ruskin College in Oxford, before entering politics.