Former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. file | Photo courtesy: Reuters
John Prescott was a merchant sailor who left school but succeeded in politics by bringing working-class credibility to the modernizing government of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as Deputy Prime Minister.
Mr Prescott, who died on Wednesday (November 20, 2024) aged 86, had a colorful career spanning five decades in British politics, becoming one of its most recognizable figures.
His heyday came as Deputy Prime Minister in the Blair government from 1997–2007, which returned a rebooted version of Labor to power at the height of the “Cool Britannia” craze.
Mr Blair had abandoned much of Labour’s socialist dogma and relied on Mr Prescott to increase the financial and political support the party had traditionally received from trade unions.
“We are all middle class now,” Mr Prescott said just weeks before Labor claimed an unprecedented three consecutive general election victories.
But he may be best remembered as the man whose short fuse and verbal gaffes made “Preza” a tabloid mainstay – and the butt of Conservative rivals’ jokes.
“John is John,” Mr Blair said after a protestor angry over Labour’s move to ban fox hunting threw an egg at him during the 2001 general election campaign.
The photos were broadcast around the world and Prescott later joked that he had told Mr Blair: “You told us to connect with the voters, so I did.”
But his smooth left strike, pleading self-defense rather than causing outrage, was endearing him to the public.
Mr Prescott, the son of a railway worker and a maid, failed his first set of secondary school examinations and dropped out at the age of 15.
He ended up working as a steward on a cruise ship and years later was ridiculed in Parliament by a political opponent’s taunt of “Mine’s a gin and tonic, Giovanni”.
One biographer said that this moment instilled in Mr. Prescott a deep hatred for the Conservative Party which transformed the amateur boxer into an even more combative political force.
Mr Prescott’s outspoken union activist ethos proved vital to Blair as he moved the party from the left towards the election-winning centre-ground.
Mr Blair said the contrast between himself and the party’s number two could not be greater. But he also valued Prescott as a loyal defender who “you can count on” in a difficult situation.
The young Prime Minister rewarded Mr Prescott by handing him a vast array of ministries, which was soon dubbed the “Magic Kingdom” by the press.
He played a major role in securing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
But his main role would have been one of constant mediation between Mr Blair and his more left-wing finance minister – and eventual successor – Gordon Brown.
Mr. Prescott’s importance in the uneasy Blair-Brown partnership helped him avoid many scandals and blunders that could have ruined the careers of others.
Mr. Prescott was dubbed “Two Jags” in the tabloid press for purchasing a chauffeur-driven government limousine in addition to his own Jaguar sedan – a perk that critics say discredits his green interest credentials. Went.
The nickname changed to “Two Jabs” following a brawl in North Wales in 2001 that became known as “The Rumble in Rhyl”.
Mr Prescott preferred using fax to email and once compared the public relations spin doctors hanging around Downing Street to “mosquitoes on the back of an elephant”.
He also frequently flubbed his lines – his disorganized English political sketches became legend among writers.
When Mr Prescott told Parliament in 2004 that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was to “walk the table”, many were left scratching their heads.
He also displayed a keen awareness of Mr. Britons’ perception of his large personality.
“When I die after 50 years in politics, they’ll show 60 seconds of me beating a fellow in Wales on the news,” he said. Guardian Newspaper in early 2019.
And he felt no remorse.
“Politics has allowed my personality, my aggression, my passion to come into full play,” Mr. Prescott said.
published – November 22, 2024 10:51 am IST
