Tony Blair leads tributes to ‘extremely direct’ deputy, recognized for not pulling his punches – on one event, actually.
Britain’s former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has died following a battle with Alzheimer’s, his household introduced.
Prescott, an ex-merchant seaman who grew to become a key determine in Tony Blair’s New Labour authorities, died “peacefully” in a care dwelling on the age of 86, his household mentioned on Thursday.
Blair, prime minister between 1997 and 2007, led tributes to his former deputy, calling him an “extremely direct communicator” and including that there was “nobody fairly like him in British politics”.
Talking on the BBC’s Right this moment programme, Blair mentioned Prescott, recognized for his gritty, no-nonsense fashion model of politics, had a “incredible intestine intuition ” and that he held a “enormous, real affection for him”.
Prescott, a outstanding commerce unionist pleased with his working-class roots, was considered by many as a bridge between Labour Occasion traditionalists and Blair’s revamped New Labour, which promoted a “Third Means” between centre-left social coverage and centre-right capitalism.
Prescott, who was incessantly lampooned by the media for mispronouncing phrases or making grammatical errors – a trait that many mentioned belied his fierce mind – was nicknamed “Two Jags” for having two luxurious Jaguar automobiles: one private, one for ministerial duties.
Criticised for utilizing the ministerial automobile for a 180-metre (200-yard) journey again to his lodge on the 1999 Labour convention, he claimed – together with his typical bluntness – that it was to stop his spouse Pauline’s hair from being blown about within the wind.
Campaigning for the 2001 basic election, he punched a person who threw an egg at him, an incident that generated headlines around the globe and prompted journalists to amend his nickname to “two jabs”.
Requested in a information convention the subsequent day concerning the assault, Blair mentioned: “John is John.”
Blair instructed the Right this moment programme that, whereas some criticised Prescott’s behaviour, “there have been different individuals saying ‘yeah, however he had this egg slammed on his head and he rotated and whacked the man’, and lots of people assume, ‘effectively, truthful sufficient’.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer lauded Prescott as “a staunch defender of working individuals”, who can be remembered for his “conviction, braveness, and energy of character”.
“A lot of John’s work set the trail for these of us lucky sufficient to comply with. From main local weather negotiations to preventing regional inequality, his legacy will dwell on effectively past his lifetime,” mentioned Starmer.
Prescott was born on Might 31, 1938, within the seaside city of Prestatyn in Wales, rising from his humble beginnings because the son of a railway signalman and a maid by way of the commerce union motion.
He studied politics at Oxford’s Ruskin Faculty as a mature pupil, later serving as deputy prime minister all through Blair’s decade in workplace.
Although he left Wales when he was 4, he all the time thought of himself Welsh.