the bridge that connected old and new Labor for Tony Blair

by Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) – John Prescott, Britain’s longest-serving deputy prime minister who died on Wednesday, was essential to Tony Blair’s New Labor government, a working-class pioneer who connected with the public in a way most politicians cannot.

Even after punching an egg-throwing protester during an otherwise carefully written 2001 election campaign, Prescott, who died of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 86, weathered criticism by claiming he had just defended himself – earning him the nickname “two jabs.”

Welsh-born Prescott was the bridge that kept Labour’s traditional trade union supporters on the sidelines while its modernizers, former prime ministers Blair and Gordon Brown, moved the party to center stage to help it achieve three electoral victories after almost two decades in opposition .

The proud former union official also acted as a marriage counselor between the two men as mistrust in their relationship began to poison their administration.

This helped him survive a series of scandals, the most famous of which was the punching incident in which he punched a member of the public after being egged, cementing his image as an old-school, bare-knuckled politician.

“Of course, everything would have been better if it hadn’t happened,” Blair said at the time. But added: “John is John.”

Prescott was later quoted as telling Blair that “you told us to contact the electorate, so I did.” In 2019, he said that when he died, his 50-year political career would be reduced on TV news to “60 seconds of me beating up a guy in Wales”.

FIGHTING POLITICIAN

Prescott was born on May 31, 1938, in a seaside house in Wales. His father was a railway signalman, his mother a maid.

He left school at the age of 15, and two years later he went to sea as a steward on a cruise ship, where boxing fights were organized among the crew for the entertainment of passengers.

“I was involved in fights,” he allegedly said.

After a stay at Oxford’s Ruskin College, he entered parliament in 1970 and rose through the ranks until, in 1997, after the historic victory of the Labor government, he became Blair’s deputy prime minister.

He was given a broad ministerial post, and both critics and colleagues considered him a hard-working and skillful politician. But the press also ridiculed him for his lack of oratorical skills, and the opposition ridiculed him because of his working-class origins.

Going back to Prescott’s time at sea, Conservative Nicholas Soames used to shout “Another G&T (gin and tonic) Giovanni” every time Prescott stood up in the House of Commons.

He was ridiculed for having two Jaguar cars, which made headlines as “Two Jags” when he drove one of them 200 meters to an event, claiming he had to keep his wife Pauline’s hair from flying.

His reputation was also damaged when, in April 2006, he admitted to having had a long extramarital affair with his diary secretary.

But Blair described Prescott as one of the most talented people he had ever met in politics and said he had played a key role in maintaining “the whole agenda” during Labour’s decade in power.

Brown said most people only saw the “bruise” caricature, but added that Prescott was a man who exuded warmth.

“Alzheimer’s disease was terrible, but he never lost the warmth and kindness he always showed in private conversations,” he told BBC Radio.

Prescott also led negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, and in 2018 told the Guardian that he considered it his proudest achievement.

“I have never worked with anyone in politics – on my side or his – like I did with John Prescott,” said Al Gore, former US vice president and climate activist, on Thursday.

Prescott retired from the House of Commons in 2010, when Labor lost to the Conservative Party, and moved to the upper House of Lords, where he remained until July this year.

He left behind his wife of 63 years, Paulina, and two sons. His family says he died surrounded by loved ones and jazz.

(Reporting by Kate Holton, editing by Elizabeth Piper and William Maclean)