John Prescott, deputy prime minister to Britain’s Tony Blair during his 10 years in government, has died aged 86 after a battle with Alzheimer’s, his family said on Thursday. Prescott, who served under Blair from 1997 to 2007, was known as a plain-speaking politician who bridged the divide between the traditional left-wing and the modernisers in the Labour Party. Dubbed an old-school political “bruiser”, he famously punched a member of the public during an election campaign in 2001, after he had been hit by an egg.
“Of course, it would have all been better if it hadn’t happened,” Blair said at the time. But added: “John is John”. Prescott was born on May 31, 1938, in a seaside house in Wales.
His father was a railway signalman, his mother a maid. Aged 17, he went to sea as a steward on a luxury cruise ship where boxing bouts were organised among the crew to entertain the passengers..