‘Formidable, charming and a smile as wide as the Humber’: John Prescott remembered
POLITICAL TITAN: John Prescott on his last day as Deputy Prime Minister in June 2007. Picture credit: Steve Punter
By Angus Young
Where to start with a word or two about John Prescott?
His time as Deputy Prime Minister, long-serving MP and a Labour Party loyalist will all be recalled today after news of his death at the age of 86, along with that infamous left-hand jab on the election campaign trail in 2001.
I knew him from the early 1980s onwards as a reporter covering the political scene in Hull. By then he was already a leading figure in the party he loved, having been an MP since 1970 after initially being selected as the Labour candidate for Hull East ahead of Harry Woodford.
Harry had been the agent for the constituency’s previous MP Harry Pursey since 1945 and was regarded as the local favourite to step into his shoes.
However, when John was chosen instead he immediately asked him to be his agent and the pair remained a formidable double act in a political partnership that spanned no fewer than ten General Elections.
To get to the blunt-speaking MP for a quote you had to go through equally abrasive Harry. The process of securing an interview in those days was always lively.
Despite always being wary of reporters, I remember one night when John accepted an invitation to be the guest speaker at a meeting of the Hull branch of the National Union of Journalists.
Labour were still in the political wilderness at the time but he gave a rousing, if typically grammatically-scattered address before sinking a few friendly pints with us.
Years later he was less willing to give us the benefit of the doubt.
On one occasion, he telephoned me at work to complain about a story I’d written and launched into a tirade of abuse which was mainly aimed at my editor at the time and the “Tory press” in general.
You couldn’t fault his passion on the subject but after five minutes of not really being able to get a word in edgeways I put the phone in a desk drawer just to get a moment’s peace. When I took it out a minute later he was still raging at the other end of the line.
Having said that, he could also turn on the charm.
Once I was sent out onto the streets of the city centre to do a vox-pop, asking people what they thought of a Hull’s printing company’s new product – edible paper which tasted of various foods.
During this unlikely taste test who should come strolling towards me but the MP for Hull East.
It was too good an opportunity to miss so I asked him to sample a strip of roast beef-flavoured cardboard.
“You have got to be joking!” he said. I waited for an expletive to follow but instead he took a bite, smiled for the camera and declared: “Bloody awful”.
The night of the 1997 General Election will stick in my memory for the sheer wave of joy it was greeted with in Labour-dominated Hull.
John, of course, was at the heart of it all, celebrating with friends, family and party supporters at a specially-arranged event in East Park before heading to London to join Tony Blair et al at the start of the New Labour government.
When, as Deputy Prime Minister, he returned to Hull with Blair and toured Preston Road promising long-awaited regeneration which was duly delivered, his smile was as wide as the Humber.
For all his ups and downs, that’s probably how I will remember him most.