John Prescott

John Prescott (born May 31, 1938, Prestatyn, Wales—died November 20, 2024) was a British politician who served as deputy leader of the Labour Party (1994–2007) and as deputy prime minister under Tony Blair (1997–2007).

Early life and education

Prescott came from a working-class family; his grandfather was a coal miner and his father a railwayman. After leaving school at age 15, Prescott worked for two years as a trainee chef and then as a steward (1955–63) on Cunard Line passenger ships. He became active in the Labour Party and the National Union of Seamen. In March 1966 he stood unsuccessfully for the House of Commons constituency of Southport. Three months later he helped to organize a seamen’s strike, although Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson condemned the “tightly-knit group of politically motivated men” behind the strike. He went on to attend the University of Hull, where he received a degree in economics and economic history in 1968.

Political career

Despite Wilson’s rebuke in 1966, Prescott was nominated for the safe Labour constituency of Hull East, which he won in 1970. Prescott displayed many of the traits common to the party’s left wing during this period, notably his opposition to British membership in the European Community. By 1981, however, he had begun to distance himself from the far left. In 1983 he backed Neil Kinnock’s campaign for the party leadership and was rewarded with a place in Kinnock’s shadow cabinet. In 1988 relations between the two men came close to a breaking point when Prescott unsuccessfully challenged Kinnock’s incumbent deputy, Roy Hattersley, for his job.

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After Labour lost its fourth successive general election in 1992, Kinnock and Hattersley stepped down, and Prescott stood again for the deputy leadership. He was defeated by Margaret Beckett but soon established a rapport with Labour’s new leader, John Smith. In the fall of 1993, Smith entrusted Prescott with making a speech to close the debate on reforms to the party constitution. Prescott’s passion swayed a number of undecided votes, and he was deservedly given the credit for the victory.

When Smith died suddenly in May 1994, Prescott ran for both leader and deputy leader. Tony Blair won the leadership easily, but Prescott defeated Beckett for the deputy leadership by 57 to 43 percent. Prescott’s robust manner, working-class roots, and trade union background provided an ideal foil for the middle-class, Oxford-educated Blair, and he quickly proved an indispensable ally to the party leader, supporting Blair in his policy initiatives and launching a campaign to overhaul Labour’s organization and increase its membership.

Deputy prime minister

When Labour swept into power in 1997, Prescott was appointed deputy prime minister and secretary of state for the environment, transport and the regions. At the head of this new “super ministry,” Prescott helped broker the Kyoto Protocol, implemented reforms to the British transportation system, and formed regional development councils. He also oversaw the creation of the post of a directly elected mayor of London. While campaigning for the 2001 election, Prescott brawled with a protester who had thrown an egg at him. The incident brought embarrassment to the party, but opinion polls showed that voters approved of his handling of the matter. After Labour’s landslide victory at the polls, Prescott lost his super ministry as part of a cabinet reshuffle, but he remained deputy prime minister and retained oversight of regional issues.

Increasingly, he was called upon to mediate between Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. The relationship between Blair and Brown, who were once close friends, often became contentious, and it was Prescott who brokered truces between Labour’s two most powerful leaders. After Labour scored another victory in the 2005 election, the strife between Blair and Brown became more pronounced, and Prescott continued in his role as peacemaker. A pair of events in April 2006 sealed Prescott’s political fate, however, and his profile within the Blair administration was greatly reduced. Labour’s weak performance in local elections resulted in a cabinet reshuffle that stripped Prescott of his portfolio, and that same week he admitted to a two-year affair with one of his female aides.

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When Blair announced his intention to step down in 2007, Prescott followed suit, and the two left office together on June 27 of that year. His 10-year term made him the United Kingdom’s longest-serving deputy prime minister. Prescott remained the member of Parliament for Hull East, though he maintained a low profile on the Labour backbench.

Later activities and death

In 2008 Prescott published his memoirs, Prezza, My Story: Pulling No Punches. He chose not to stand for reelection in the 2010 general election. Later in 2010 Prescott was made a life peer. In 2019 he had a stroke and was subsequently diagnosed with Alzheimer disease. Prescott died in 2024.