Image source, Getty Images

Also paying their respects to the late John Prescott are Hull's Labour councillors and the city's MP, Karl Turner. Prescott represented the seat of Kingston upon Hull East for nearly four decades.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of our dear friend John Prescott, aged 86. Our long standing former MP for Hull East for 40 years, and Labour's longest standing Deputy Prime Minister, John was a giant of our movement," they said in a statement on Facebook.

"He fought all his life for social justice. He will be so sadly missed and our thoughts and best wishes are with his family Pauline, David and Johnathan. RIP JOHN."

Turner writes on X: "John's legacy will forever be etched in the hearts of those he served and the city he loved. Rest in peace, comrade! Your contribution to public life will never be forgotten."

Image source, Getty Images

Former Labour cabinet minister Lord Mandelson has hailed John Prescott as an “all time great of the Labour Party".

"We owed so much to him - his determination, his courage, his loyalty," he says. "He was the cement that kept New Labour together, a massive force for good as well as a tremendous personality.”

Meanwhile Lord David Blunkett, former Home Secretary, called Prescott "tenacious, sometimes furious, always committed and totally loyal to the Labour cause."

"Last time I saw John in person, he poked me in the chest with his stick, and we hugged. He truly was a giant of modern politics and will be sorely missed."

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

In 2019 John Prescott told The Guardian: "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."

The tributes pouring in this morning show he was wrong about that.

The recurrent theme in all the reminiscences is that Prescott was a much more influential and powerful force than some perhaps appreciated.

In the early years of the Blair government, as well as being Blair’s number two, Prescott was secretary of state for environment, transport and the regions, holding responsibilities which are nowadays divided up between four cabinet ministers.

The tributes are also dwelling on how critical Prescott’s trade union, working-class background was to New Labour’s appeal at the same time as Blair and Brown were seeking to win over middle-class voters who had perhaps not considered the party before.

At several crucial junctures Prescott used his credentials to the modernisers’ advantage. Notably he backed Blair’s decision in 1995 to rewrite Clause 4 (the statement of the Labour Party’s principles and aims).

Perhaps less-remembered is Prescott coming to the aid of Blair’s predecessor, John Smith, in 1993, delivering a barnstorming speech backing a move to weaken trade unions’ role in selecting Labour’s parliamentary candidates.

This paved the way for Prescott to win the deputy leadership the next year and become a major figure in Labour, and British, history.

Image source, Getty Images

Independent MP and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also paid tribute to John Prescott, describing him as a "huge figure and personality".

Corbyn says he will be "forever grateful for his personal and political support" in the lead up to the 2017 and 2019 general elections, when he ran against Theresa May and then Boris Johnson.

"I am really sad to hear that John Prescott has passed away," Corbyn writes on X. "John was a huge figure and personality, from his seafaring union days to the highest offices in Government.

His endless warmth and iconic wit were loved on the campaign trail. My deepest sympathies to John’s family at their loss. He will be greatly missed."

Image source, Getty Images

Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has just paid tribute to John Prescott, praising him as someone who has had an "enormous impact" on Britain.

"We might have had different political views, but there is no doubting John Prescott's impact on British politics over four decades and more," Cameron writes on X. "John was a heavyweight of the Labour movement and a huge figure of our politics during the 1990s and 2000s."

Cameron says Prescott was "deeply committed, loyal" and had "an enormous impact on our country, our politics and the Labour Party over many years; he will be hugely missed".

"Politics has lost a great character, full of conviction and with a genuine dedication to public service today," adding his thoughts are with Prescott's family and friends.

Image source, Getty Images

Also reacting to news of John Prescott's death is Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey, who says he was "deeply saddened by the news" as he extended his condolences to the Prescott family.

"John Prescott will be remembered as a towering figure in British politics and his unwavering tenacity on the causes he championed should be a lesson to us all," he says.

"His influence on our modern society will still be felt for years to come and his legacy remembered far into the future."

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 infamous incident, where Prescott responded by punching the man, has come to be known as the "Prescott Punch" or the "Rumble in Rhyl".

"I was hosting the meeting he was coming to and I recall vividly that I was inside the hall and somebody came in to tell me that someone had thrown egg at John, and I said 'dear me or other words', and two seconds later he'd hit him," says Murphy, describing it as a "very difficult situation".

"He (John) came in dishevelled, and you can imagine his language was quite strong, and I was with him when he was washing the egg off and then the phone calls came in from Alistair Campbell and, of course, Tony Blair".

Image source, X/Angela Rayner

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has just released a statement on the death of Prescott, describing him as an "inspiration" to her.

“John was not only a Labour legend but an inspiration to me, and always so generous with his time and support," Rayner says, adding that he was "driven by his Labour values to serve working people".

"Fiercely proud of his working class and trade union roots, he never lost sight of who he came into politics to serve. He used the chance he was given to change the lives of millions of working people.

“A giant of the Labour movement and loyal friend, he will be remembered with huge fondness by all those who knew him."

Image source, Getty Images

Also joining the throng of Labour figures paying tribute to John Prescott is former Number 10 spin doctor Alastair Campbell, writing on X that "there was nobody else like him".

"Tony could not have had a better deputy. Labour could not have had a better campaigner. The government could not have had a better negotiator and - yes, often, peacemaker. Hull could not have had a better MP," he says.

And a few minutes ago, he told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It really does feel like one of our greatest characters has gone. It’s a time when frankly, we need big characters in our lives.

"[John was] absolute authenticity. There was something about John, that he was really, really, real."

Continuing his homage to John Prescott, Gordon Brown describes him as a "pioneer of regional policy", attributing the devolution of mayors to the way "John was thinking right through the 1980s and 90s".

Brown says one of Prescott's greatest achievements was during his role as environment secretary when he oversaw "repair and improvement of housing...one and a half million houses which would not have been repaired without John's determination".

"You've got to look at the practical achievements of someone who possibly surprised himself by the way that he managed to become deputy prime minister," he tells the Today programme.

Image source, Getty Images

We're now hearing from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the first time since the news of Prescott's death broke.

"John was a friend of mine, he was a colleague but when you think of him, he was a colossus, he was a titan of the Labour movement," he tells the BBC's Today programme.

Brown, who was Chancellor when Prescott was Deputy Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, says Prescott was the first government minister to see the importance of the environment, praising his negotiation of the Kyoto protocol.

While we wait to hear from Gordon Brown in a few minutes, Alzheimer’s Research UK says it is "incredibly moved" by Lord Prescott's family asking for donations to the research charity in lieu of flowers.

"It’s heartbreaking to hear that former deputy Prime Minister, Lord John Prescott, one of the most prominent political figures of our generation, has died withAlzheimer’s," chief executive Hilary Evans-Newton says.

She adds: "As the UK’s leading dementia research charity, we’re accelerating progress towards a cure, so no one’s life has to end this way."

We'll be hearing from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown shortly on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Brown was Chancellor during Prescott's tenure as deputy prime minister between 1997 and 2007.

• You can watch Brown's interview with the Today programme by pressing Watch live above

Image source, Getty Images

We're hearing now from former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who tells BBC Breakfast a lot of John Prescott's work "was hard slog", and that his achievements went "largely under the radar".

Johnson, a close friend of Prescott, describes the former deputy prime minister as "very intelligent and very dedicated".

And when asked about Prescott punching a man who threw an egg at him in 2001, Johnson says, "in a sense it displays his authenticity".

"John had it in spades and probably didn’t know it. Fortunately, that conflict was filmed and you saw a guy half his age, much bigger than him assaulting him. John wasn’t going to turn the other cheek. That was John, that was his background."

Chris Mason
Political editor

“The completely unique Prescott blend of charm and brutality - made always more effective by the unpredictability of which would be predominant - got you through the decade.”

So wrote Tony Blair in a private letter to John Prescott in the days after leaving Downing Street as Prime Minister in 2007.

Sir Tony later wrote in his memoirs: "He could be maddening, he could be dangerous, he could be absurd, he could be magnificent," never “dull, placid, uneventful…forgettable".

Amid the slick, middle class polish of New Labour, John Prescott personified a blunt grit; proudly working class, proud of his trades union background, proud to bind his party’s past with its present.

From a seafaring waiter as a young man, he was, via the European Parliament and much later the House of Lords, to become the country’s longest serving Deputy Prime Minister.

Concluding his tribute to Prescott, Blair says the best advice he received from Prescott was to remember that "we had two bits of the coalition".

One side was the "progressive middle class", the other was the "aspirational working class", Blair says.

On his late deputy's reputation as a "marriage counsellor" between him and his then-Chancellor Gordon Brown, the former PM says Prescott was "a vital part of keeping the whole show together".

"He got on with both of us because he believed it was in the interest of the Labour Party," adding that Prescott was like a "bridge".

We just heard Tony Blair recapping one of the more memorable moments in Lord Prescott's career, when he punched a man who threw an egg at him on the general election campaign in 2001.

Take a look at the moment below:

After pictures of the incident appeared in press around the world, he was nicknamed “two jabs” by journalists.

Lord Prescott said he had acted in self-defence and police refused to take any further action. Subsequent newspaper polls suggested most people supported his reaction.

Tony Blair recalls some of the "really funny times" with Prescott and remembers the moment in the 2001 general election campaign when Prescott punched a member of the public who had thrown an egg at him.

"This caused a huge fracas obviously, and was an immense media story. We had to give a press conference in the election campaign the next day," he tells the Today programme.

"Some people were saying 'he's deputy prime minister - you can't have a deputy prime minister thumping a voter'.

"And then there were other people saying 'yeah, but he had this egg slammed on his head and he turned round and whacked the guy, and a lot of people think, well, fair enough'.

"We had a long debate about it, and finally at the press conference when I was asked about it, I said 'John is John'... that's as much as you can say.

"There were no rules that he really abided by."

Image source, Getty Images

Continuing with his tribute to Prescott, Blair says he feels "devastated" for the loss of his former deputy prime minister.

Prescott was "innovator, highly intelligent", Blair says, saying that he reached the voters that "I couldn't reach".

The former prime minister says Prescott was an "incredibly direct communicator" and while the pair had their disagreements, he was "loyal" and "committed".

Prescott had a "fantastic gut instinct about politics" and I had a "huge, genuine affection for him", Blair adds.

Speaking on the Today programme, Former Prime Minister Tony Blair pays tribute to John Prescott, saying there was “no-one quite like him in British politics”.

“He had a fantastic gut instinct about politics," he says.

• You can watch Blair's interview with the Today programme now by pressing watch live above.