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NBCJul 07, 2024
Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord John Prescott has died aged 86, With his family writing in a thread on X that he passed "peacefully" on Wednesday "surrounded by the love of his family and the jazz music of Marian Montgomery."
Born in Wales in 1938 before moving near to Rotherham at the age of four, Prescott studied economics at Hull University and led a national seamen's strike in 1966. He then successfully ran for the parliamentary seat of Kingston upon Hull East in 1970, and remained their MP for 40 years.Born in Wales in 1938 before moving near to Rotherham at the age of four, Prescott left school at age 15 with no qualifications studied economics at Hull University and became a trade union activist, leading a national seamen's strike in 1966.
Prescott became deputy prime minister to Tony Blair in 1997 and held the role for ten years. He was ennobled in 2010 before experiencing a stroke in 2019 and later being diagnosed with Alzheimers. Prescott left the House of Lords in July this year, citing health problems.He then successfully ran for the parliamentary seat of Kingston upon Hull East in 1970, and remained their MP for 40 years. Prescott sat on the party's National Executive Committee for 25 years, and lost out twice to become Labour deputy leader in 1988 and 1992 respectively.
For many, Prescott was and forever will be a shining beacon of the Labour Party's core values. Having left school school without qualifications before becoming a union activist, a local advocate for Hull, and a working class counterweight to Tony Blair's air of elitism, there are not many left within Labour who can truly claim to be of the people in a way Prescott so unapologetically was. Often a broker between the butting heads of Blair and Brown, Prescott's role in the rise of New Labour was more important than he ever was given credit for, and his passing is a true loss to British politics.