For more than a decade, John Prescott provided a crucial link with the party's working-class roots as Sir Tony's reforming drive led critics to accuse him of abandoning socialism. He was also a go-between when Blair and Brown's relationship failed.
He was the politician who pulled no punches and in the wake of Lord John Precott's death, his most famous political moment is being remembered again.
The punch happened when Lord Prescott had just got off his campaign bus, the Prescott Express, to speak at a Labour rally.Lord Prescott turned and punched the protester and a brawl occurred - all captured by TV cameras. Clearly emotional, he said: 'I was just thinking this morning about the the time when in the 2001 election - remember when someone smashed an egg on his head and he turned around and he punched the guy and laid him out?
'And so there was nothing you could do. So we had a long debate about it and finally, at the press conference, when I was asked about it, I just said, 'Well, John is John.' Former Labour Cabinet minister Paul Murphy has been telling BBC Radio Wales Breakfast how he helped clean up John Prescott after a man threw an egg at him during the general election campaign in 2001.
The former Labour deputy prime minister was nicknamed 'Two Jags' due to his long love affair with them while in high office, including one infamous trip where he drove 200 yards in one to attend an engagement.
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