John Prescott back in the fold with new climate change role

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has been given a new senior role advising Ed Miliband. Lord Prescott will advise the Labour leader on climate change (an issue neither men are strangers to) but with so little time before the election, it seems implausible the veteran campaigner will not have a role in the election.

Miliband wrote in The Observer that part of Prescott’s remit will be to “bash heads together”, something he reiterated on Twitter earlier:

Prescott stood down as Deputy Prime Minister when Blair retired in 2007 and retired as an MP in 2010 after representing Hull East for 40 years. In 1997, Prescott led the UK delegation at discussions on the Kyoto Protocol, and resumed work on post-Kyoto climate change negotiations in 2006.

Miliband attended the Copenhagen climate change discussions in 2009 as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and has now brought in Prescott to help in the run up to the UN summit in Paris later this year. In an article on the subject today, Miliband wrote:

“To support me in this task I have asked John Prescott to advise me on how we can achieve the best deal at the summit in Paris. His abilities and experience, as one of the architects of the Kyoto protocol in 1997, must be used at this critical time for our future and there is no one better than John at bashing heads together to get a deal.”

Hiring Prescott could be seen as a way of attracting back working class supporters that are unsure about voting for Labour in May, while a renewed focus on climate change could be an effort to block the “Green surge”.

Prescott made headlines in October when he used his Sunday Mirror column to attack Labour election strategy as “too timid” – claiming Miliband was pursuing a “core vote strategy”.