A highlight of the lacklustre 2001 general election campaign was the “Prescott punch”. John Prescott, Labour’s deputy prime minister, was incensed by a protester who hit him with an egg. He lashed out at the egg-thrower and the police had to separate the two men. The incident was caught on camera and dominated the news. A mortified Prescott thought that he would have to resign but Tony Blair played the matter down, stating: “John is John.”
Prescott was the keeper of the cloth cap in Tony Blair’s Labour government, perhaps the last overtly working-class Labour politician to hold high ministerial office. With his prolier-than-thou attitude and forceful statement of traditional Labour values, he could touch the hearts of trade union and Labour activists more than any other party figure. At the 1993 party conference the leader, John Smith, was advocating one-member, one-vote in elections for parliamentary candidates and the party leader. The result was in doubt and Smith’s authority, if not his leadership, was on the line. Prescott, in a passionate, meandering, even incoherent speech, roused the enthusiasm of the audience and helped to win the vote.
