John Prescott was never short of a word or two – and while they could sometimes become a bit jumbled, he never minced them either.
The former Labour deputy prime minister, who died yesterday aged 86, was a formidable debater and also famous for cracking jokes, even in the darkest moments.
After punching a member of the public who egged him outside a Labour rally in 2001, his boss Tony Blair called him to berate him.
The then prime minister demanded: ‘Well, what happened?’, to which Prezza responded: ‘I was just carrying out your orders. You told us to connect with the electorate, so I did’. Blair later admitted to the press: ‘John is John’.
In 2006 the press exposed his two-year affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple, who was 24 years his junior. But he insisted that they worked very hard for the country – although the straight-talking trade unionist’s lover did admit they managed to ‘squeeze in’ some sex too.
Lord Prescott was dyslexic, and would often muddle syntax, struggling with the arrangement of words and phrases. Once he said: ‘The Green Belt is a Labour achievement and we intend to build on it‘.
Joking about it he once told the Commons: ‘Syntax! Syntax? I thought that was a new Tory tax!’.
And there was nearly a diplomatic incident when on a climate change-related trip to China he said the food was nowhere near as good as his favourite Chinese takeaway in Hull.
John Prescott singing at the Amicus union party in Manchester, on the eve of the final day of the Labour Party conference in 2006. He has died aged 86
Here are 20 of the most famous Prescott-isms:
1. ‘The food in China is not as good as Jack Chu’s in Hull‘ – on Chinese food
Mr Prescott loved a Chinese meal at this restaurant in Hull – more than the food in China itself
Lord Prescott’s comrade Alan Johnson told of how Tony Blair’s deputy reacted to a banquet in China.
‘He went to China as Deputy Prime Minister. And they laid on a big banquet for him with the top chefs, obviously Chinese food’, Mr Johnson said.
‘Then they said to John afterwards, ‘What did you think of that?’ He said it was alright, but it wasn’t as good as Jack Chu’s on St Andrew’s D because that’s his local.
It caused a diplomatic incident but I was with John on that’.
2. ‘The rich countries of this world have thrown down the gauntlet to the poorest. They poisoned [developing countries] now they’re trying to strangle them’ – on demanding the suspension of Kyoto agreement that he helped create.
Mr Prescott said helping secure the Kyoto Agreement was one of his proudest achievements – but he later campaigned to scrap it.
He accused the Americans of blocking moves to halt greenhouse gas emissions, especially President Bush and Al Goire.
‘Sadly many of the ideas that were included in the Kyoto agreement came from the Americans and Al Gore, but the inconvenient truth is that when George Bush was elected, he simply sat on them.
‘It has not done him much good since he is becoming more and more isolated and oil prices have shot up in the US anyway,’ said Mr Prescott.
3. ”Oh I made that cr*p – can we go again?’ Nick Robinson: ‘We are – in fact – live, deputy prime minister’.
Following news of his death, BBC Radio 4’s Today host Nick Robinson shared an anecdote of the former deputy prime minister.
He said: ‘Prescott once stumbled in an interview with me, getting confused about what he was trying to say.
”Oh I made that crap,’ he said, ‘can we go again?’ My reply, ‘We are – in fact – live, deputy prime minister’.
‘At the end of the interview, we both laughed so much it hurt.’
4. ‘It’s a bit like alcohol. You can finish being an alcoholic. But if you go back to drinking more and more alcohol, you will become alcoholic again’ – on his bulimia
Writing in his autobiography, Lord Prescott said his bulimia developed in the 1980s due to the stresses of serving in Labour’s then shadow cabinet.
He then struggled with the mental health condition for two decades.
He detailed how throughout his time in Tony Blair’s Government he would binge burgers, chocolate, crisps as well as fish and chips.
5. ‘I’ve been stupid’ – after his affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple was revealed
In April 2006 came the moment that marked the end, when it was revealed that Prescott had conducted a two-year affair with his secretary, Tracey Temple
His wife Pauline stood by him
John Prescott admitted he had ‘no excuses’ for having an affair with his diary secretary.
The former deputy prime minister said he deeply regretted his two-year liaison with Tracey Temple, which he claimed made him feel ‘ashamed’.
In an interview with John Humphrys on the BBC Radio 4 programme On The Ropes, Mr Prescott’s voice cracked with emotion as he recalled the fallout from the relationship.
His affair with Miss Temple was revealed in April 2006 after a newspaper published photographs of the couple together during a drunken Whitehall office party.
But he said Tony Blair had not asked him to go and he did not offer his resignation on the insistence of his wife Pauline.
‘I talked to my wife: She was very strong and supportive,’ he added. ‘I was fortunate to be a man who has a wife who’s obviously more mature than me’, he said.
6. ‘I have quite fundamental disagreements with Tony Blair’ – June 1994.
Three years after this quote, he was helping Tony Blair sweep to power – as a bridge between old Labour and the trade unions and the party’s reformers.
7. ‘I am afraid of being rejected, of being put down’ – Interview, The Sunday Telegraph, 1994.
Prescott was very thin-skinned. He admitted himself, in part due to his failure to get into a grammar school.
He remained critical of the system throughout his life,
Once criticising the system in Kent he said it worked ‘for the few at the expense of the many’.
8. ‘To be fair, you were either with Neil Kinnock or against him. Same with me. So we were against each other’ – Interview in Esquire, 1994.
Neil Kinnock tried to crack down on unions in a bid to beat the Tories – but instead John Prescott joined the picket lines as the miners had supported seamens’ strikes.
Neil Kinnock gave his tribute today – but admitted they didn’t always get on.
He said: ‘John Prescott was an intriguing mixture of ferocity and charm who attracted affection, respect and, sometimes, outrage.
‘John wouldn’t want me to pretend that we always agreed – but it was to his credit that after a dispute he would sustain his commitment to the party and to the project of change’.
9. ‘I don’t want to be a member of the House of Lords. I will not accept it.’ – before he entered the House of Lords
After stepping down at the 2010 election, he was elevated to the Lords
John Prescott went from refusing to set foot in the House of Lords to taking a seat in just two years.
In 2010 he revealed the reason behind his extraordinary decision to accept a peerage: He wanted to save the planet.
The former Deputy Prime Minister had previously declared he would never accept a seat in the House of Lords and has been a vocal critic of ‘flunkery and titles’.
But seeking to justify his change of heart, Mr Prescott said he took the peerage because it gave him an ‘opportunity’ to influence environmental policy.
Mr Prescott said: ‘I make my own decisions. Of course I’ll be influenced by my wife, but I’m not doing it for that.’
He added: ‘It provides me an opportunity on environment.’
House of Lords. I will not accept it.’
10 ‘Did they find any syntax?’ – After a routine brain scan following a minor road accident in 1996.
John Prescott was believed to be dyslexic. Some said he was probably dyspraxic.
He said things like: ‘I always have a problem with my face. I have to live with it’ and ‘Here we have a Government disintegrating between our eyes’ – on the John Major administration.
He would joke about it often – but also called criticism of his phrases snobbery.
He went on to present a BBC TV documentary about the British class system – highlighting the ‘prejudice’ he claimed to have suffered while a politician.
The former Deputy Prime Minister addressed issues such as ‘middle-class syntax snobbery’, the wealth gap and ‘toffs’ in Prescott on Class.
The BBC confirmed that he received an estimated £15,000 to front the show.
11. ‘I’m now Zero Jags’ – on getting rids of his luxury cars
‘Two Jags’ Lord Prescott sold the last of his favourite cars in a bid to cut his carbon footprint in 2021.
Lord Prescott, who once bragged about owning one of ‘every kind of Jag’ bar one, also cut down on the amount of fish and chips he ate.
He said he was now ‘no Jags’ Prescott after selling the last of his motors ahead of a visit to the COP26 climate summit.
In a column for the Times Red Box he wrote: ‘I’ve made my own small contribution to cutting carbon emissions. I’ve sold my Jaguar. I am now Zero Jags.’
12. ‘Cheers John, nice to see you’ – Nessa to Prescott in Gavin and Stacey cameo
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott once appeared in BBC hit series Gavin and Stacey in a hilarious skit as Nessa’s old flame
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott once appeared in BBC hit series Gavin and Stacey in a hilarious skit as Nessa’s old flame.
The politician made an appearance in the show in the last episode of the third series as a guest at Ruth Jones’s character’s wedding as she prepared to marry fiance Dave Coaches.
Lord Prestcott wrote glowingly in his blog at the time about his cameo saying that he ‘thoroughly enjoyed’ it.
During the original BBC series, which ran from 2007 until 2010, Nessa Jenkins regularly recalled her sexual liaisons with celebrities such as Nigel Havers, members of Welsh comedy hip hop group Goldie Lookin Chain – and Lord Prescott.
The character regularly alluded to the Labour politician being a former flame, including expressing regret that he was not the father of her baby when she fell pregnant.
In the episode, he can be seen entering the church and congratulating Dave, to which he replies: ‘Cheers John, nice to see you.’
13. ‘They are gnats on an elephant’s backside’ – On Labour’s spin doctors during the 1997 general election campaign.
14. ‘I have changed. I no longer keep the coal in the bath. I keep it in the bidet’ – When he announced that he had joined the middle classes.
While Blair was away and Prescott was supposed to be standing in, photographers captured him playing croquet with his officials on the Dorneywood lawn
Mr Prescott said he was proud of being working-class, but liked fine living.
Mr Prescott was criticised for keeping his grace-and-favour residence Dorneywood when stripped of his department after an affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple was revealed.
He gave up the Buckinghamshire estate – where he was once famously pictured playing croquet with his staff – in 2006.
Critics also attacked his use of two cars , which led to his nickname of Two Jags – before it changed to Two Jabs after he punched a man who threw an egg at him during the 2001 election campaign.
Astonishing photographs showed how Mr Prescott – shamed after a steamy affair with his Whitehall diary secretary – relaxed with aides on the manicured lawns of Dorneywood while officials claimed he was running the country from his Whitehall office in 2006
The pictures were taken shortly after Mr Blair left Downing Street to fly to the US for a summit with George Bush – leaving the Premiership in the hands of his deputy.
But instead of concentrating on matters of state, Mr Prescott drove straight to his grace-and-favour residence in Buckinghamshire to stroll the 200-acre grounds, take refreshments and enjoy a game of croquet with political aides and civil servants.
15. ‘If present trends continue we will soon need a motorway, 150 lanes wide, between London and Leeds’ – As Transport Secretary.
But it was the M4 bus lane he was most criticised for.
It ran for 3.5 miles London-bound from close to Heathrow and infuriated millions of motorists as it usually sat unused while they fumed in traffic jams.
The bus lane proved hugely controversial from its inception with celebrities such as Jeremy Clarkson regularly attacking it.
It became known as the ‘Blair lane’ when, within days of its opening, the former Prime Minister’s official car avoided a traffic jam and swung into the empty bus lane and past the queues for ‘security reasons’. Other former ministers also used it to dodge jams.
16. ‘My position is that I want to make our position clear, the example in Germany is just one example, for example’ – As Environment Secretary (1997-2001).
17. ‘During the election, I met this chap who said, ‘you’ve got to help me John. I’ve never had sex under a Labour Government’. If you are listening, mate, I hope the first 100 days were good for you’ – October 1997.
18. ‘You are a terrible man for asking the questions and not giving an answer’ – To BBC interviewer, Edward Stourton, October 2002.
19. ‘He’s a little s***’ – Prescott on Blair after he ‘betrayed’ Gordon Brown by refusing to step down from power
John Prescott once told Tony Blair to sack Gordon Brown – and then urged Brown to resign – but both refused at the height of their rivalry.
He said Blair was ‘scared’ of his chancellor and knew sacking him would tear Labour apart. On the other hand Brown was too scared to fight Blair from the backbenches.
Mr Prescott later even accused the former prime minister of betraying Mr Brown by going back on a promise to step down.
He called Blair a ‘little s***’ to his face
20. ‘You told us to connect with the electorate, so I did’ – to Tony Blair after punching a voter
Prescott was talented amateur boxer
Enraged by Labour’s inept handling of agriculture, a local farmer, Craig Evans, threw an egg from short range at Prescott’s head. At that, the Deputy Prime Minister turned and punched Evans in the face, before being dragged into a brief brawl in 2021
The ex-merchant seaman earned the nickname ‘two jabs’ following the incident – a variation on ‘two Jags’, which referred to his fondness for luxury cars.
The punch happened when Lord Prescott had just got off his campaign bus, the Prescott Express, to speak at a Labour rally.
As he walked past a line of protesters, he was struck by an egg which covered his suit.
Lord Prescott turned and punched the protester and a brawl occurred – all captured by TV cameras.
Police officers managed to intervene and 29-year-old Craig Evans, a farm worker from Denbigh, was taken away in handcuffs.
Lord Prescott said at the time: ‘I was attacked by an individual. In the melee that followed I clearly defended myself.’
But privately told his boss: ‘You told us to connect with the electorate, so I did’.
Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday he ‘had a lot of really funny times’ with his deputy, adding ‘he could be a very amusing guy’.
Clearly emotional, he said: ‘I was just thinking this morning about the the time when in the 2001 election – remember when someone smashed an egg on his head and he turned around and he punched the guy and laid him out?’.
‘So we had a long debate about it and finally, at the press conference, when I was asked about it, I just said, ‘Well, John is John.’
‘And so was that supposed to be an answer? I said, ‘Yes, that’s an answer.’ That’s as much as you can say, and that’s what he was like, there were no rules that he really abided by’.
