John Leslie Prescott (born
31 May 1938) is a Welsh Labour politician, who has been the
Member of Parliament for
Hull East
since 1970; from 1997 to 2007, he
was the Deputy Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom, also serving as First Secretary of State from
2001.
He was elected
Deputy Leader of the
Labour Party after coming second in the
1994 leadership
election, and was duly appointed Deputy Prime Minister after
Labour's victory in the
1997 election, with an
expanded brief as
Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the
Regions.
A former ship's
steward and
trade union activist, by the 1980s he was
presented as the political link to the
working class in a Labour Party increasingly
led by modernising, more
middle class
professionals.
In his youth, Prescott managed to overcome
the handicap of failing his grammar
school entrance Eleven Plus
examination, to graduate from Ruskin
College in Oxford
.
Prescott also developed a reputation as a key conciliator in the
often tense relationship between the two other senior figures in
government, then-
Chancellor Gordon Brown and then-
Prime Minister Tony Blair.
On 27 June 2007, he resigned as Deputy Prime Minister, to coincide
with the resignation of Tony Blair. Following an election within
the Labour Party, he was replaced as Deputy Leader by
Harriet Harman. However, the position of
Deputy Prime Minister was not assigned to any minister. On 27
August 2007, he announced that he would stand down as a Member of
Parliament at
the next
election.
Early life
The son of
a railway signalman and Labour councillor, and grandson of a miner, Prescott was born in Prestatyn
, Wales
.
He left
Wales in 1942 at the age of four and was brought up initially in
Brinsworth
in South Yorkshire
, England
. He
attended Brinsworth Primary School (known then as Brinsworth Manor
School), where he sat but failed the
Eleven
Plus examination in 1949.
Shortly after, his family moved to Upton
, Cheshire
and he went
to school in nearby Ellesmere Port
, where he attended Grange Secondary Modern
School. He became a steward and waiter in the
Merchant Navy, thus avoiding
National Service, working for
Cunard, and was a popular
left-wing union
activist.
Prescott's time in the Merchant Marine included a cruise from
England to New
Zealand
in 1957. Among the passengers was Sir
Anthony Eden, recuperating after his
resignation over the
Suez Crisis.
Prescott reportedly described Eden as a "real gentleman". Apart
from serving Eden, who stayed in his cabin much of the time,
Prescott also won several
boxing contests, at
which Eden presented the prizes. He married Pauline 'Tilly' Tilston
at Upton Church in Chester on 11 November 1961.
He then went to the
independent Ruskin College in
Oxford, which specialises in courses for union officials,
where he gained a diploma in economics and politics in
1965. In 1968, he obtained a
BSc in
economics and
economic history at the
University of Hull.
Member of Parliament
He
returned to the National Union
of Seamen as a full-time official before being elected to the
House of
Commons
as Member of
Parliament (MP) for Hull East in 1970, succeeding Commander Harry Pursey, the retiring Labour MP.
The defeated Conservative challenger was
Norman Lamont.
Previously, he had
attempted to become MP for Southport
in 1966, but came in second place, approximately
11,200 votes behind the Conservative candidate. From 1974 to
1979, he concurrently served as a
Member of the European
Parliament (MEP) and Leader of the Labour Group, when its
members were nominated by the national Parliaments. In 1980 he was
offered a
European
Commissioner post but turned it down.
Prescott held various posts in Labour's
Shadow
Cabinet, but his career was secured by an impassioned closing
speech in the debate at the
Labour Party Conference in 1993 on
the introduction of "one member, one vote" elections for the party
leadership that helped swing the vote in favour of this reform.
Prescott became deputy leader with the first
leadership vote
under the new system following the death of
John Smith in 1994. Prior to
being elected deputy leader, Prescott was unsuccessful in
contesting the party leadership losing to Tony Blair.
Deputy Prime Minister
John Prescott in May 2007
With the election of a Labour Government in
1997, Prescott was made
Deputy Prime
Minister and given a very large
portfolio as the head of the newly
created
Department
for Environment, Transport and the Regions.
In July 2001, an
Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister
(ODPM) was created to administer the many areas
under his responsibility. This new office was originally part of
the Cabinet
Office
, but became a department in its own right in May
2002, when it absorbed some of the responsibilities from the
now-abolished Department for Transport, Local Government and the
Regions.
In the United Kingdom, the title of Deputy Prime Minister is used
only occasionally, and confers no constitutional powers (in which
it is similar to the pre-20th century usage of
Prime Minister). The Deputy Prime Minister
stands in when the Prime Minister is unavailable, most visibly at
Prime Minister's
Questions, and Prescott has attended various Heads of
Government meetings on behalf of Tony Blair.
Since the position of Deputy Prime Minister draws no salary,
Prescott's remuneration was based on his position as
Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the
Regions until
2001.
This
"super department" was broken up, with the Department for the Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs
and the Department for Transport
established as separate entities.
Prescott
was given the largely honorific title of First Secretary of State, whilst
continuing to head smaller department of the Office of
the Deputy Prime Minister, with responsibility for local and regional
government, housing, communities and the fire service.
Environment
The UK played a major role in the successful negotiations on the
Kyoto Protocol on
climate change and Prescott led the UK
delegation at the discussions.
In May 2006, in recognition of his work in delivering the Kyoto
Treaty,
Tony Blair asked Prescott to work
with the
Foreign
Secretary and the
Environment Secretary
on developing the Government's post-Kyoto agenda.
Transport
Integrated transport policy
On coming to office, Prescott pursued an integrated public
transport policy. On 6 June 1997, he said: "I will have failed if
in five years time there are not...far fewer journeys by car. It's
a tall order but I urge you to hold me to it." However, by June
2002, car traffic was up by 7%. This prompted
Friends of the Earth’s Tony Bosworth to
say "By its own test, Government transport policy has
failed".
Prescott had success in focusing attention on the role of car usage
in the bigger environmental picture and the need for effective
public transport alternatives if car volume is to be reduced. The
subsequent debate on
road pricing
evolved from his policy. A contrast was highlighted between
Prescott's transport brief and an incident, in 1999, when an
official chauffeur-driven car was used to transport Prescott and
his wife from their hotel to the venue of the Labour Party
Conference, where Prescott gave a speech on how to encourage the
use of public transport. Prescott explained, "Because of the
security reasons for one thing and second, my wife doesn't like to
have her hair blown about. Have you got another silly question?"
Prescott was fined for speeding in July 1988, March 1989, January
1991 and January 1997. The last conviction related to an offence on
28 December 1996, when he was found to be driving at 80 mph on
the
M62 at a time when police
recommended a 30 mile per hour limit due to ice; he was fined
£40 and given three penalty points on his driving licence.
Rail regulation
Prescott had a stormy relationship with the
privatised railway industry. He had vigorously opposed
the privatisation of the industry while the Labour Party was in
opposition, and disliked the party's
policy,
established in 1996 just before the
flotation of
Railtrack on the
London Stock Exchange, of committing
to
renationalise the industry only
when resources allowed, which he saw as meaning that it would never
be done. Reluctantly, he supported the alternative policy, produced
by then shadow transport secretary
Clare
Short, that the industry should be subjected to closer
regulation by the to-be-created
Strategic Rail Authority (in the
case of the passenger train operators) and the
Rail Regulator (in the case of the monopoly
and dominant elements in the industry, principally Railtrack). The
policy was spelled out in some detail in the Labour Party's
statement in the June 1996 prospectus for the sale of Railtrack
shares, and was widely regarded as having depressed the price of
the shares.
In 1998, Prescott was criticised by investors in the railway for
his statement - at the Labour Party conference that year - that the
privatised railway was a "national disgrace". The companies felt
that they had had some considerable successes in cutting costs and
generating new revenues in the short time since their transfer to
private sector hands, and that the criticisms were premature and
unfair.
In that speech, Prescott also announced that he would be taking a
far tougher line with the companies, and to that end he would be
having a "spring clean of the regulators". This meant that the
incumbent
Director of Passenger
Rail Franchising - John O'Brien - and the Rail Regulator
John Swift QC - both appointed by the
previous
Conservative
government, would have to make way for new Labour appointees. In
February 1999, the regulation of the passenger rail operators fell
to Sir
Alastair Morton, who Prescott
announced would be appointed as chairman of the
Strategic Rail Authority, which
would take over from the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising
whose office would be wound up. In July 1999, the new Rail
Regulator appointed by Prescott was
Tom
Winsor. They shared Prescott's view that the railway industry
needed a considerable shake-up in its institutional, operational,
engineering and economic matrix to attract and retain private
investment and enable the companies within it to become strong,
competent and successful.
Local and regional government
Responsible for local government, Prescott introduced a new system
guiding members' conduct after 2001. The new system included a
nationally agreed Code of Conduct laid down by
Statutory Instrument which all local
authorities were required to adopt; the Code of Conduct gives
guidance on when councillors have an interest in a matter under
discussion and when that interest is prejudicial so that the
councillor may not speak or vote on the matter. Although on many
areas councillors had previously been expected to withdraw where
they had declared an interest, the new system made the system more
formal and introduced specific sanctions for breaches; it was
criticised for preventing councillors from representing the views
of their local communities.
Prescott supported
regional
government in England. Early in his term, he introduced
regional assemblies
(consisting of delegates from local authorities and other regional
stakeholders) to oversee the work of new Regional Development
Agencies in the regions of England. Following Labour's second
election victory, he pressed for the introduction of elected
regional assemblies, which would have seen about between 25 – 35
members elected under a similar electoral system to that used for
the
London Assembly. However, due to
opposition, the government was forced to hold regional referendums
on the change. The first three were intended to be in the
North-East, North-West and Yorkshire and Humberside. The
North-East
referendum in November 2004 was first (where support was felt
to be strongest) but resulted in an overwhelming vote of 78%
against. As a consequence, the plan for elected regional assemblies
was shelved.
Housing
A rising number of households (especially in the south-east) was
putting added pressure on housing during Prescott's tenure as the
minister responsible. An increase in the housebuilding was
proposed, primarily on
brownfield sites, but also on some
undeveloped
greenfield
areas and as a result he was accused of undermining the
Green Belt. In January 1998 Prescott said in
a radio interview that "The green belt is a Labour achievement; and
we intend to build upon it" - an accidental
double entendre.
In the
north of England, Prescott
approved the demolition of some 200,000 homes that were judged to
be in "failing areas" as part of his
Pathfinder
regeneration scheme. It has been argued that renovating properties,
rather than demolishing them, would have made better financial and
community sense.
Opposition to education reforms
On 17 December 2005, Prescott made public his disapproval of Tony
Blair's plans to give
state schools
the right to govern their finances and admission policies and to
increase the number of
city
academies. It was the first policy stance that Prescott had
made against Blair since his election as leader in 1994. Prescott
said that the move would create a two-tier educational system that
would discriminate against the working class. He added that Labour
were "always better fighting class".
Links with the grass roots
Prescott, sometimes described as "an old-school unionist", kept in
touch with the views of the traditional Labour voters throughout
his career. He became an important figure in
Tony Blair's "
New
Labour" movement, as the representative of 'old Labour'
interests in the
Shadow Cabinet and
subsequently around the
Cabinet
table as
Deputy Prime
Minister.
However, now a member of the
establishment, relationships with the
grass roots were not always smooth.
Whilst attending the
BRIT Awards in
1998,
Chumbawamba vocalist
Danbert Nobacon poured a jug of iced water
over Prescott, saying, "This is for the
Liverpool Dockers".
(Dock workers in Liverpool
had been involved in a two-year industrial dispute:
a strike that had turned into a
lockout, until a few weeks
earlier.) A reporter from the Daily
Mirror threw water over Nobacon the following
day.
Abolition of department
In a
Cabinet
reshuffle on 5 May 2006, Prescott's departmental
responsibilities were transferred to
Ruth
Kelly, as
Secretary
of State for Communities and Local Government, following
revelations about his private life and a poor performance by Labour
in that year's local elections. He remained as Deputy Prime
Minister, with a seat in the Cabinet, and was given a role as a
special envoy to the Far East.
The press speculated in July 2006 that, as a consequence of the
continuing problems centred on Prescott, Blair was preparing to
replace
him as Deputy Prime Minister with
David Miliband, whilst possibly retaining
Prescott as
Deputy Leader of the
Labour Party, but nothing came of this.
Announcement of retirement
On 28
September 2006, at the Labour Party Conference in
Manchester
, John Prescott apologised in his speech for the bad
press he had caused for the party during the previous year.
He said: "I know in the last year I let myself down, I let you
down. So Conference, I just want to say sorry." He confirmed that
he would stand down as Deputy Leader when Tony Blair left Downing
Street. On 30 January 2007, he announced in the House of Commons
that "I'm in a rather happy
demob stage", in a
combative performance.
Within 30 minutes of Tony Blair announcing the date of his
resignation on 10 May 2007, Prescott announced his resignation as
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. During the subsequent special
Labour Party Conference, at which
Gordon
Brown was elected Leader and
Harriet
Harman succeeded Prescott as Deputy Leader, Prescott received a
prolonged
standing ovation from the
members present, in recognition of his many years of service to the
party.
Life after government
Following his resignation, it was announced that he would take over
from
Tony Lloyd as the lead UK
Representative in the
Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe. The post is unpaid, but has
an expenses allowance and allows him to sit on the
Assembly of Western European Union. In a
jocular response to the appointment,
Shadow Europe Minister Mark Francois wished the translators good
luck.
On 27 August 2007, Prescott stated that he will stand down as an MP
at
the next general
election, upon which he is expected to be offered a
Peerage. He has not spoken in Parliament since July
2007, although he raised a point of order at a rare Friday sitting
of the Commons in May 2009. He has also engaged in the campaign
against slave labour, which he intends to make a key issue in his
work at the Council.
Prescott is a director of
Super League
rugby league club
Hull Kingston
Rovers, who are based in his constituency of East Hull.
His autobiography,
Prezza, My Story: Pulling no Punches
ghostwritten by
Hunter Davies, was
published on 29 May 2008.
In June 2008, he made a cameo appearance, playing a policeman, in
the
BBC Radio 4 adaptation of
Robert Tressell's
The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists.
In October and November 2008 he was the subject of a two-part
documentary,
"Prescott: the Class System and Me", on
BBC Two, looking at the class system in
Britain, and asking whether it still exists.
Prescott is publicly very supportive of Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, and has called him a "global giant"
Health concerns
Prescott was diagnosed with
diabetes in
1990, although this was not publicly disclosed until 2002.
On 2 June
2007 he was admitted to hospital after being taken ill on a train
from his constituency in Hull
to London King's Cross
. He was later diagnosed with pneumonia and was treated at University
College Hospital
, London. He was moved to a high-dependency
ward on 5 June 2007 so he could be monitored more closely because
of his age and the fact he suffers from
diabetes. On 6 June 2007 it was reported in the
media that his condition was stable and that he was sitting up and
"joking" with hospital staff. He was subsequently released from
hospital on 10 June 2007 to continue his recovery at home.
In April 2008, Prescott announced he has the eating disorder
bulimia nervosa, which he believed
was brought on by stress since the 1980s.
Criticism and controversies
Prescott has been involved in a number of controversies and
incidents that have caused public concern and widespread media
interest.
During the 2001 election campaign, Prescott was campaigning in
Rhyl
when farmer Craig Evans threw an
egg at him, which struck him in the neck. Prescott, a
former amateur boxer, responded immediately with a punch which
floored Evans. The incident, overshadowing the launch of the Labour
Party
manifesto on that day, was captured
by numerous television crews.
Tony Blair
responded succinctly, stating, "John is John". However, a
National Opinion Polls (NOP) survey
found that the incident appeared to do no public harm to Prescott,
and may even have benefited his standing amongst male voters.
In 2003,
Prescott gave up a grace and favour
home that he had rented from the RMT
Union in Clapham
, despite leaving the union in June 2002.
Prescott paid £220 a month for the property — a fifth of its market
value. Though he had not declared the flat in the register of
members' interests, he was subsequently exonerated by MPs who
overruled
Elizabeth Filkin, the
Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards.
On 12 January 2006, Prescott apologised
after it was revealed that the council
tax for the government flat he occupied at Admiralty
House
was paid for using public money, rather than his
private income. He repaid the amount, which came to
£3,830.52 over nearly nine years.
There have been additional controversies over sexual infidelities
and harassment allegations. On 26 April 2006, Prescott admitted to
having had an affair with his diary secretary,
Tracey Temple, between 2002 and 2004. The
Mail on Sunday broke the news
with extracts from Temple's
memoirs. These
included a range of salacious allegations that were subject to
extensive media comment. This two-year affair is said to have
commenced after an office party and, in part, took place during
meetings at Mr Prescott's grace-and-favour flat in Whitehall.
Conservative MP Andrew Robathan tabled questions in the
House of
Commons over John Prescott's reported entertainment of Ms
Temple at Dorneywood
, his official residence, which raised questions
over the possible misuse of public finances. Trevor Kavanagh, former political editor of
The Sun, told
BBC Radio 5 Live: "Learning that John
Prescott's had an affair is a bit like learning that
Simon Hughes is gay. I mean, everyone knows he
had an affair. He's had a string of affairs throughout his life and
this has come as no surprise." On 7 May 2006,
The Sunday Times quoted Linda McDougall,
wife of
Austin Mitchell, as saying
that in 1978 Prescott had put his hand up her skirt as he came
through the door to a meeting - Mr Prescott had not met McDougall
before. On 30 July 2006, it was revealed that Tricia McDaid had
filed suit for sexual harassment.
He was criticised for maintaining the benefits of Deputy Prime
Minister despite losing his department in 2006. He was also
attacked for visiting the American billionaire
Phil Anschutz, who was bidding for the
government licence to build a
super
casino in the UK, and questioned over his involvement in the
business of his son
Johnathan
Prescott.
He gained a reputation in the British press for confused speech,
mangled syntax and poor grammar. The
Guardian columnist
Simon Hoggart once commented:"Every time
Prescott opens his mouth, it's like someone has flipped open his
head and stuck in an egg whisk." An oft-quoted but unverified story
in
Jeremy Paxman's
The Political
Animal is that, before being accepted as transcribers to the
Parliamentary record the
Hansard,
applicants must listen to one of Prescott's speeches and write down
what they think he was trying to say.
The media have attached various
sobriquets
to John Prescott during his political career. Originally,
Prescott's nickname was simply "Prezza", but as various misfortunes
befell Prescott the soubriquets became more colourful leading to
"Two Jags" (Prescott owns one
Jaguar,
and had the use of another as his official ministerial car).
Later
versions of this term are "Two Jabs" (following his retaliation
against a protester farmer in 2001); "Two Shags" (in reference to
his affair with his diary secretary, Miss Tracey Temple); and "Two Shacks" (referring to
his former country
house). The Independent later referred to
Prescott as "No Jobs" when he lost his department in a cabinet
reshuffle following exposure of his affair, despite keeping the
benefits and residences associated with his title, which became a
sinecure.
On 8 May 2009,
The Daily
Telegraph began publishing
leaked details of MPs' expenses.
The
Telegraph reported that Prescott have claimed £312 for fitting
mock Tudor beams to his constituency home, and for two new toilet
seats in as many years. Prescott has not responded to any of the
claims.
Ancestry
In 2009 Prescott participated in a
BBC
Wales programme
Coming
Home in which he researched his
family
tree. During the filming of the programme it was discovered
that his great, great, great grandfather, Thomas Parrish, was the
most likely father of his daughter's first four children. Athaliah
Parrish, Prescott's great, great grandmother, later married William
Jones and had a further six children. During the programme Prescott
reaffirmed his feelings for his country, saying "I’ve always felt
very proud of Wales and being Welsh. People are a bit surprised
when I say I’m Welsh. I was born in Wales, went to school in Wales
and my mother was Welsh. I’m Welsh. It’s my place of birth, my
country."
Bibliography
- Punchlines: A Crash Course in English with John
Prescott by Simon Hoggart (Pocket
Books, 2003) ISBN 0-7434-8397-9
- Fighting Talk: Biography of John Prescott by Colin
Brown (Simon & Schuster, 1997) ISBN 0-684-81798-5
- Prezza: My Story: Pulling No Punches by John Prescott
(Headline, 2008) ISBN 978-0-755-31775-2
See also
References
- Friends of the Earth - Transport policy fails the
Prescott test
- " Prescott walks it like he talks it", BBC, 30
September 1999
- "80mph Prescott fined", Sunday Times, 5 January 1997,
p. 2
- Guy Patrick, "Cops nick speeding Prescott", News of the
World, 5 January 1997, p. 9
- Sir Alastair Morton left office, early, in October 2001. Tom
Winsor continued until the end of his five-year term in July
2004.
-
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/john_prescott/kingston_upon_hull_east
- Headline: ISBN 9780755317752.
- The Bookseller: "Have they got books for
you".
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8267420.stm
-
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article3780994.ece
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1997138.stm
- BBC News: In Pictures: John Prescott
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