John Prescott

John Leslie Prescott (born May 31, 1938) is a British Labour Party politician who is Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State. He is also MP for Hull East. He became Deputy Leader of the Labour Party after coming second in the Labour leadership election in 1994 and became Deputy Prime Minister after Labour's landslide victory in the 1997 General Election. A former ship steward and trade union activist, he is often seen as the working class conscience of the "New" Labour party led by modernising middle-class university-educated professionals (despite his university education). He is well known for the mangled syntax that he often employs while speaking.

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Rt. Hon. John Prescott

Early life

The son of a railway signalman (and Labour councillor) and grandson of a miner, Prescott was born in Prestatyn in Wales and brought up initially in Brinsworth in South Yorkshire. He attended Brinsworth Primary School, where he sat but failed the Eleven Plus examination in 1948. His family moved to Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, which meant he would attend the Grange Secondary Modern School. To John's annoyance, his younger brother, Ray, passed the exam. This bitterness in respect of differing success would perpetuate for many years. He became a steward in the merchant navy, working for Cunard, and was a popular left-wing union activist. He then went to the independent Ruskin College in Oxford and gained a degree in economics and economic history at the University of Hull.

Parliament

He returned to the National Union of Seamen as a full-time official before being elected to the House of Commons as MP for Hull East in 1970. From 1974–79 he concurrently served as an MEP and Leader of the Labour Group, when its members were nominated by the national Parliaments.

Prescott held various posts in the 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. The support of an old-school unionist like Prescott helped swing the vote in favour of change. When the party first voted for its leadership under the new system, following the death of John Smith in 1994, Prescott became deputy leader. He became an important figure in Tony Blair's "New Labour" movement, as the representative of "old Labour" interests in the Shadow Cabinet and a reassuring presence for critics.

Deputy Prime Minister

With the election of a Labour government in 1997, Prescott was made Deputy Prime Minister and given an impressively large portfolio at the head of the newly created Department for Transport, Environment and the Regions. He pursued an integrated public transport policy, though his reputation as a friend of public transport was hardly helped by his love of large cars, which gained him the nickname "Two Jags". The epithet is a pun on the Monty Python sketch, "Arthur Two Sheds Jackson".

While attending the Brit Awards in 1998, Chumbawamba vocalist, Danbert Nobacon, poured a jug of iced water over him, 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.

Prescott has on occasion been described as a Champagne socialist. In 1999, an official chauffeured car was used to transport Prescott and his wife 300 yards from their hotel to the venue of the Labour Party Conference, where Prescott gave a speech on how to encourage people to use public transport. Giving the reasons for this Prescott stated:

"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?"

"Two Shags"

The 2001 General Election campaign was marked by an incident when Craig Evans, a protester in a crowd, threw an egg at Prescott, who responded with a , hitting the agitator. A scuffle developed and the two had to be separated by Prescott's police minders. The incident, overshadowing the launch of the Labour party manifesto on that day, was captured by television crews, and frequently replayed during the campaign, causing the name "Two Jags" to be temporarily replaced by "Two Jabs". However, a NOP poll found that it appeared to do no harm to Prescott and might have benefited his standing among male voters . After the election his "superministry" was broken up, leaving him with much reduced responsibilities. In the reshuffle that followed the resignation of Stephen Byers in 2002, he regained many of his former responsibilities for local and regional government, which were moved to a newly-independent Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Regional development

Prescott is a supporter of regional government in England. Early in his term, he introduced regional assemblies (consisting of delegates from local authorities) 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 20 members elected under a similar electoral system to that used for the Greater London Assembly. However, due to opposition, the government was forced to hold regional referenda on the change. The first three were intended to be in the North-East, North-West and Yorkshire and Humberside. The North-East referendum was first (where support was felt to be strongest) but resulted in an overwhelming vote against. The plan for elected regional assemblies has failed.

Prescott's conduct of his Department has been criticised in relation to housing development. The Department believes that the rising number of households (especially in the south-east) means that new houses need to be built. Given that there are insufficient 'brownfield' (developed) sites, some greenfield (undeveloped) sites must be used for them, including some in the Green Belt. Prescott made a gaffe in 1998 when he declared, "The green belt is a Labour achievement, and we are going to build on it."

In the north of England, Prescott has approved the demolition of some 200,000 homes that are judged to be in 'failing areas' as part of his Pathfinder Regeneration scheme. In some cases these areas are abandoned, in others the communities are resisting. In the South East, the most affluent area of the country, Prescott is widely criticised for building high rise flats on sites that were formerly houses, back gardens and green areas.

Rebellion over education reforms

On the 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. Prescott, who lost out on grammar school on the basis of the controversial Eleven Plus examination, said that the move would create a two-tier educational system that would discriminate against the working class. In an interview that was the first that Prescott has made against Blair since his election as leader in 1994, he also said that the spirit of "fighting class" should be brought back to the Labour Party, an ideal that sits uneasily amongst many middle-class MPs in his parliamentary party.

Confused speech patterns

Prescott has gained a reputation in the British press for confused speech, mangled grammar and syntax. This may be because he has dyslexia. One example of this is an impromptu speech given in Witham, Essex during the 2005 election campaign:

"Look I've got my old pledge card a bit battered and crumpled... We said we'd provide more turches churches teachers... and we have. I can remember when people used to say the Japanese are better than us, the Germans are better than us, the French are better than us, well it's great to be able to say we're better than them. I think Mr Kennedy (well we all congratulate on his baby) and the Tories are you remembering what I'm remembering? Boom and bust, negative equity - remember, Mr Howard. I mean, "are you thinking what I'm thinking" I'm remembering it's all a bit wonky isn't it?"

It is notable that like United States President George W. Bush, Prescott's speech problems usually occur when he is speaking off the cuff and not from prepared notes.

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 Hansard, applicants must listen to one of Prescott's speeches and write down what he was trying to say.

On 29 March 2006, whilst standing in at Prime Minister's Questions, Prescott responded to criticism from William Hague regarding his confused syntax in the following manner:

I think cynical about politics come from 18 year of Tory government than from this. And, er, you know, erm, well, I just say to the honourable member, I often get the erm grammar wrong and I - er - take the blame for it. That was my education and I was responsible for it. but I would sooner get the words wrong than get my judgment wrong. After all, he was the leader who slammed England independence, who claimed that the minimum wage was the height of irresponsibility and would cause unemployment, and who said that Lord Archer was a man of integrity. If there is a choice between getting my words wrong and getting my judgment wrong, I would sooner have my problem than his.

Hansard editors (who Prescott frequently refers to - along with the media - as "penny scribblers") later cleaned this up, and "England independence" apparently refers to Bank of England independence.

Council tax

In 2003 gave up a grace and favour flat he rented from the RMT Union in Clapham, South London. Prescott paid £200 a month for the property, a fifth of its market value, but had not declared the flat in the register of members interests. On 12 January 2006, Prescott apologised after it was revealed that the council tax for the government flat he occupies at Admiralty House was met by the public purse, rather than by Prescott. He repaid the amount (which came to £3,830.52 over nearly nine years).

Extra-marital affair

At the 1996 Labour conference, Mr Prescott laid into the Tories on the basis of sleaze and infidelity, saying with reference to the antics of former transport minister Steven Norris: "They are up to their necks in sleaze. The best slogan for their conference next week is, 'Life's better under the Tories' - sounds to me like one of Steven Norris's chat-up lines."

But on 26 April 2006, Prescott admitted to having had an affair with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple, between 2002 and 2004. This relationship is said to have commenced after an office party. The two-year affair took place during meetings at Mr Prescott's grace-and-favour flat in Whitehall. Several media organisations noted that Mr Prescott chose to confess his affair the morning after the news broke that home secretary Charles Clarke had tendered his resignation (refused by Tony Blair) after hundreds of prisoners marked for deportation had been released back into the UK, possibly in an attempt to "bury" the news. However, Prescott and his wife appeared genuinely shocked and upset by the story's breaking, and several political commentators believe that this is a real coincidence. Barrie Williams, 46, currently Miss Temple's partner, told the Daily Mirror: "I feel sick. I can't believe the woman I wanted to marry has slept with John Prescott. I feel sorry for Mr Prescott's wife because, like me, I'm sure she had no idea what was going on. I've been betrayed by one of the most powerful men in the UK." The affair earned Prescott a new nickname in the press: "Two Shags", instead of the previous one, "Two Jabs", which had been given to him during the 2001 election campaign.

Trevor Kavanagh, former political editor of The Sun, told Radio 5 Live: "Learning that John Prescott's had an affair is a bit like learning that Simon Hughes is gay. I mean, everyone knew he has affairs. He's had a string of affairs throughout his life and this has come as no surprise."[1] It is alleged that belief of Prescott conducting extra-marital affairs has been wide-spread amongst the political lobby for a long time. Rumours quickly began to circulate of an unnamed Second Mistress but commentators chose only to hint at the identity of the alleged third woman amid talk of legal action.[2]

However news of this and hints of other affairs dominated the national headlines for days causing heavy damage to the Labour Government.

Conservative MP Andrew Robathan has tabled questions in the House of Commons over John Prescott's reported entertainment of Ms Temple at Dorneywood, his official residence, which would raise questions over the possible mis-use of public finances. [3]

On Saturday, 29 April 2006, Miss Temple sold her story to the Mail on Sunday for over £100,000. In her interview she claimed that Mr Prescott "exploited power for his own sexual gratification"[4] Adding to the storm, Mr Prescott did not turn up to his monthly surgery with constituents in Hull. [5]

One of Mr Prescott's friends, Sports Minister Richard Caborn, told BBC News the deputy prime minister was "very depressed" over his "huge mistake" and that wife Pauline was "greatly saddened". In a video statement released, Ms Temple appeared tearful. She told the newspaper "we made love in John's office" and that "we were very lucky we never got caught". "If I was wearing a skirt, he would slide his hand up my leg, under it. He used to stroke my back. She told the paper that on one occasion the Mr Prescott "got frisky" in the Admiralty Boardroom - described as a government conference room. "I went in to take some notes and he touched my breasts and starting kissing me."

She also claimed she and Mr Prescott had sex after he took her to an Iraq war memorial service. She said regular sexual encounters took place in his office with the door open while other civil servants worked outside. Mr Prescott would often interrupt official business to engage in sexual banter, she alleged[6]

On 30th April a 'former senior Labour aide' Tricia McDaid was reported in the Sunday Times as accusing Prescott of being, in the paper's headline, 'a serial groper'[7] with a long record within the Labour Party of aggressive sexual behaviour. 'He just jumped on you when he felt like it.'

The Mail on Sunday also alleged that Mr Prescott had an affair 20 years ago with Sarah Bisset-Scott and a string of other lovers. Rumours continued across the media that another of Mr Prescott's lovers was a senior member of the Department of Health.[8]

Prescott subsequently expressed his intention to complain to the Press Complaints Commission, whilst admitting 'I have acted stupidly'. [9].

Bibliography

• Punchlines: A Crash Course in English with John Prescott by Simon Hoggart (Pocket Books, 2003) ISBN 0743483979
• Fighting Talk: Biography of John Prescott by Colin Brown (Simon & Schuster, 1997) ISBN 0684817985

External links

• Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - The Rt Hon John Prescott MP official site
• 10 Downing Street - John Prescott official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Prescott MP
• Spoof article on Prescott's affair
• TheyWorkForYou.com - John Prescott MP
• Who do you think you are kidding Mr Prescott? - the news blog of the Campaign for an English Parliament
• Mr Prescott and his gaffes