Big personality who was an authentic voice of the people

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott

The last time I met John Prescott he said something very rude, and as it turned out, very accurate, about a senior civil servant. That was his superpower.

Blunt, often to the point of boorishness, but invariably his political instinct was spot on. As former prime minister Tony Blair said last week on hearing of Prescott’s death at 86: “He was one of the most talented people I ever encountered in politics; one of the most committed and loyal; and definitely the most unusual.”

Perhaps what was most unusual was not Prescott’s modest background – he left school at 15 to join the merchant navy as a steward – but his determination to speak as he found. And then act. His forthright, northern accent was often dismissed as a sign of mediocrity by those with more modulated tones, but they were just snobs.

The Labour party has always been full of those. Sadly, recently it has not had so many politicians like John Prescott. Someone with a big personality that no spin-doctor could dampen down and a sharp political intellect that could – if given the right circumstances – change the country for the better.

He also had star power. I still remember the excitement during the 1997 general election campaign when news came that John Prescott’s battle bus was on its way to Wester Hailes. He was greeted with loud cheers, not only by party activists, but by local residents who all knew exactly who he was and were chuffed to bits that he had come to the estate. “He’s one of us,” I remember a chap saying to me.

When I observe today’s crop of Labour ministers, including Prime Minister Starmer, with their carefully curated soundbites and charisma-free personalities, I do yearn for John Prescott’s big persona.

Angela Rayner once described herself as “John Prescott in a skirt” but she flatters herself. Yorkshireman John Prescott was one of a kind, and I doubt we will ever see his like again. He once said he feared he would only be remembered for the infamous incident when he punched a man in Wales, but his legacy is far greater. He was an authentic voice of the people in a political conversation that has, too often, ignored the people.