Tony Blair and Gordon Brown pay tribute to John Prescott, celebrating his legacy as a ‘titan’ of the Labour Party and British politics.
John Prescott, the former Labour Deputy Prime Minister, has passed away at the age of 86.
His family said he passed away peacefully on Wednesday, accompanied by jazz music at his care home, where he had been living with Alzheimer’s.
Tony Blair expressed his devastation, stating to the BBC that there was “no-one quite like him in British politics,” and he recollected an incident during the 2001 election campaign when someone was punched.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer describes him as a “genuine titan of the Labour movement.”
The ex-trade union activist was a member of Blair’s government for a decade and represented the Kingston upon Hull East constituency in Parliament for nearly 40 years.
Former Labour Cabinet minister Paul Murphy recounted on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast how he assisted John Prescott in tidying up after a man threw an egg at him during the 2001 general election campaign.
The notorious event, in which Prescott retaliated by striking the man, has been dubbed the “Prescott Punch” or the “Rumble in Rhyl.”
Murphy recounts the situation vividly: “I was hosting the meeting that he was attending, and while I was inside the hall, someone came in to inform me that John had been hit with an egg. My immediate reaction was ‘dear me or other words,’ and just two seconds later it struck him,” describing it as a “very difficult situation.”
John entered looking quite disheveled, and as you might expect, his language was rather strong. I was with him while he washed off the egg when calls from Alistair Campbell and Tony Blair started coming in.
