Prescott (whisper it) was a New Labour moderniser

It has often been said that Tony Blair used John Prescott – with his working-class, trade-union background and traditional socialist beliefs – as a human shield, to give Blair cover for his middle-class, crypto-Tory sellout of Labour values. It is not true.

- JOHN RENTOUL

On every issue, Prescott agreed with the New Labour line. In some cases, he had come to Blairite conclusions before Blair. He supported the national minimum wage at a time when many trade unions insisted that it was their role to negotiate better conditions for the low-paid.

I knew him when he had a reputation as a fire-breathing lefty in Neil Kinnock’s shadow cabinet. I interviewed him for BBC TV in 1991 about Labour’s support for the Gulf war, to retrieve Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s invasion. He was privately opposed to it, but publicly stuck to party policy. When the camera operator stopped to change the battery, he shouted at me for asking about “tittle-tattle”, before resuming the interview in a calm and smiling manner.

We got on most of the time because he was always thoughtful. He supported John Smith, Blair’s predecessor, in bringing in “one member, one vote”, to cut the power of the trade union leaders.

I was there when Prescott, arms waving like a windmill, exhorted delegates at the Labour conference in Brighton in 1993 to back “this man, our leader” who had put his “head on the block” to defend the link with the trade unions by reforming it. I was there when he supported Blair in rewriting Clause IV of Labour’s constitution, removing the objective of the “common ownership” of everything.