Former
deputy
prime
minister



and
transport
minister
John
Prescott
has
died
at
the
age
of
86.

His
family
said
he
had
been
living
in
a
care
home,
and
had
been
suffering
from
Alzheimer’s
disease.

John
Prescott
was
the
son
of
an
LMS
signalman
and
was
born
in
Prestatyn
in
1938.
He
left
school
when
he
was
15
to
work
as
a
trainee
chef
and
then
as
a
steward
on
the
Cunard
Line.

Although
he
had
failed
the
eleven-plus
examination,
he
later
graduated
from
Ruskin
College
and
the
University
of
Hull.

He
was
elected
MP
for
Kingston
upon
Hull
East
on
18
June
1970,
and
continued
to
represent
that
constituency
until
12
April
2010.

His
main
influence
on
transport
policy
came
after
he
had
been
appointed
Deputy
Prime
Minister
and
Secretary
of
State
for
the
Environment,
Transport
and
the
Regions
by
the
new
Prime
Minister
Tony
Blair
on
2
May
1997.
The
breadth
of
his
responsibilities
inspired
the
nickname
of
‘Prescott’s
super-ministry’,
but
he
spent
a
lot
of
his
time
on
transport
matters.

In
June
1998
he
rescued
the
failing
Channel
Tunnel
Rail
Link,
telling
MPs:
‘When
I
had
the
chance
to
examine
the
details
of
the
deal
put
in
place
by
the
previous
Government,
I
was
appalled
…
Even
this
week
I
was
asked
to
find
£100
million
to
pay
for
specially
designed
sleeper
trains
which
do
not
work,
have
never
been
used,
and
are
now
lying
idle
in
a
field.’

He
oversaw
the
creation
of
a
new
public
private
partnership
to
complete
the
project
after
four
months
of
talks,
and
construction
continued.
The
first
section
opened
in
Kent
in
2003
and
Britain’s
first
high
speed
line
was
opened
throughout
four
years
later.

In
July
1998
he
published
a
White
Paper
entitled
‘A
new
deal
for
transport’,
and
this
was
followed
in
November
1999
by
improvements
to
railway
safety
in
the
wake
of
the
Ladbroke
Grove
train
crash,
which
included
the
nationwide
installation
of
TPWS
and
the
launch
of
the
confidential
reporting
system
CIRAS.
The
following
month
he
published
a
Ten
Year
Plan
for
Transport,
and
was
also
responsible
for
a
new
Transport
Act
which
received
Royal
Assent
in
December
2000,
creating
the
Strategic
Rail
Authority.

He
was
made
a
Life
Peer
in
July
2010,
after
Labour
had
lost
91
seats
in
the
General
Election
in
May,
resulting
in
a
Conservative-Liberal
Democrat
coalition
government.

He
could
be
hot-tempered,
as
was
demonstrated
by
the
famous
egg-throwing
incident
in
Rhyl
in
May
2001,
when
Prescott,
who
had
won
several
boxing
matches
in
his
youth,
punched
a
protestor
who
had
thrown
an
egg
at
him.

There
had
been
no
punches
in
2000
at
East
Croydon,
but
he
clashed
verbally
with
an
elderly
lady
who
effectively
gate-crashed
a
tram
launch
event
on
6
April,
telling
Prescott
that
trams
were
hopeless
and
dangerous,
and
that
he
should
not
have
allowed
them
to
return.
On
that
occasion
the
protestor
won
the
day,
because
Prescott
angrily
abandoned
a
question
session
with
the
media
and
left
the
scene
abruptly,
leaving
the
reporters
to
quiz
the
old
lady
instead.

John
Prescott
is
survived
by
his
wife
Pauline
and
their
sons
Jonathan
and
David.

John
Leslie
Prescott,
Baron
Prescott,
31
May
1938–20
November
2024