John Prescott’s forgotten legacy, from the climate to the devolution agenda

“When I do die, after 50 years in politics, all they will show on the news is 60 seconds of me thumping a fellow in Wales,” John Prescott said in an interview with The Guardian in 2019.

Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson spoke this week of the late former Deputy Prime Minister’s fear about how he would be remembered.

But while Prescott may be remembered by some for gaffes and pints, there was so much more to the man, and the former Hull East MP’s legacy is notable.

Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North MP Liam Byrne told LabourList that Prescott had also been a “great writer and policy thinker”, noting the many pamphlets he wrote on Labour and policy matters before New Labour’s time in office.

Prescott used his time in office to push for devolution, including a major enduring shakeup of London’s governance through the creation of the post of London mayor, and the London Assembly. The model helped inspire further devolution to other mayoral combined authorities in later years.

He helped launch regional development agencies, encouraging economic devolution from Whitehall. He also sought to encourage regional assemblies, though the plan was shelved following a 2004 referendum in the North East.

While he’s best known for his time as a politician in Westminster, he also served a stint as a Member of the European Parliament in the 1970s and was a UK representative in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe later in his career.

Prescott’s policy legacy also included achievements on climate, the environment and housing. At home, he pushed for the mass renovation of social housing, and introduced household grants to improve heat insulation, with similar grant schemes continued by subsequent governments.

He was among the negotiators of the Kyoto Protocol in the late 1990s that sought to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Prescott played a key role in this early bid to limit the world’s carbon footprint.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday: “A campaigning Labour hero and a remarkable minister who transformed lives – upgrading millions of council homes, coalfield regeneration, tackling climate change.”

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