John Prescott Quotes

John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a Welsh politician who was the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Kingston upon Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010. In the 1994 leadership election, he stood for both Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, winning election to the latter office. He was 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 1990s he was presented as the political link to the working class in a Labour party increasingly led by modernising, middle-class professionals such as Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson. In his youth he failed the eleven-plus exam entrance examination for grammar school, but went on to graduate from Ruskin College and the University of Hull. Prescott also developed a reputation as a key conciliator in the often stormy relationship between Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.

On 27 June 2007 he resigned as Deputy Prime Minister, coinciding with Blair's resignation as Prime Minister. Following an election within the Labour party, he was replaced as Deputy Leader by Harriet Harman. Prescott retired as an MP at the 2010 election. On 8 July 2010, he entered the House of Lords as a life peer with the title Baron Prescott, of Kingston upon Hull in the County of East Yorkshire.Prescott stood as the Labour candidate in the election to be the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside Police, but lost to Conservative Matthew Grove.On 21 February 2015, it was announced that Prescott would return to politics as a special adviser to then-Labour leader, Ed Miliband. Wikipedia  

✵ 31. May 1938
John Prescott photo
John Prescott: 10 quotes1 like

Famous John Prescott Quotes

“This was released I think in February and so it is a great deal of fuss being made, it hasn't in fact been given public release, it was released in February …”

John Prescott

As quoted in "Prescott triumphs on slippery slopes of syntax" by Simon Hoggart (10 June 2004); Hansard http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/vo040609/debtext/40609-03.htm#40609-03_sbhd3 rendered this as "The document was released in February. A great deal of fuss was made that it had not been given a public release, but it was released in February."

“I will have failed in this if in five years there are not many more people using public transport and far fewer journeys by car. It is a tall order but I want you to hold me to it.”

John Prescott

As quoted in "Prescott points buses to fast lane" by Paul Brown, in The Guardian (6 June 1997), p. 10.

“The Green Belt is a Labour achievement — and we mean to build on it.”

John Prescott

Remark on BBC Radio (19 January 1998), quoted in "Passing Comment", The Times (31 January 1998)

“I can tell you I'm pretty middle-class.”

John Prescott

BBC Radio 4 Today program interview (12 April 1996)

John Prescott Quotes

“We now have a satisfactory solution not only to coalition forces, but also to the Iraqi authorities themselves.”

John Prescott

As quoted in " Prescott triumphs on slippery slopes of syntax http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1235237,00.html" by Simon Hoggart (10 June 2004); Hansard http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/vo040609/debtext/40609-03.htm#40609-03_sbhd3 rendered this as "we now have a satisfactory solution for not only coalition forces, but the Iraqi authorities".

“When I see that man on the telly — 'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' No! I'm definitely not! I find most of it quite offensive!”

John Prescott

Referring to the slogan used by Michael Howard during the 2005 General Election campaign, as quoted in "Election 2005: Aggressive and voluble — but the real thing" by Oliver Burkeman, in The Guardian (21 April 2005), p. 6

“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?”

John Prescott

Comment on ITN news when asked why he had taken a car 250 yards from his hotel to the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, instead of walking (30 September 1999), as quoted in "Prescott walks it like he talks it " BBC News online (30 September 1999) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/461555.stm

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