Ex-UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott Dies At 86

Former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who served under Tony Blair and helped transform the country’s Labour Party, John Prescott is dead.

Prescott’s family announced his passage on Thursday.

He was aged 86.

“We are deeply saddened to inform you that our beloved husband, father and grandfather, John Prescott, passed away yesterday (Wednesday) at the age of 86,” the statement read.

Prescott who was a former merchant seaman and trade union activist who served as a member of parliament for Hull in northern England for four decades, died “peacefully” at a care home, according to his wife Pauline, and two sons.

“He did so surrounded by the love of his family and the jazz music of Marian Montgomery,” they added.

The privately educated lawyer who appointed working-class Prescott to help appease the Labour left as he moved the party to the centre ground, Blair said he was “devastated” at Prescott’s death.

“There was no one quite like him in British politics,” he told BBC radio.

Keir Starmer, who became Labour’s first prime minister since 2010 after a landslide general election win in July, called Prescott “a true giant of the Labour movement”.

“He was a staunch defender of working people and a proud trade unionist. During a decade as deputy prime minister, he was one of the key architects of a Labour government that transformed the lives of millions of people across the nation,” he added.

“So much of John’s work set the path for those of us fortunate enough to follow. From leading climate negotiations to fighting regional inequality, his legacy will live on well beyond his lifetime.”

Prescott, who was appointed to the House of Lords, suffered a stroke in 2019 and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s.

He stopped being a member of the upper chamber of parliament in July because of his health problems.

Prescott served for 10 years as Blair’s deputy following Labour’s landslide 1997 general election win. During a campaign stop in north Wales, he punched a protester who threw an egg at him.

He also acted as a mediator between Blair and his finance minister Gordon Brown, who also helmed the transformation of Labour in the 1990s and had designs on power.