Jacqueline Howard
Live page editor

With the deep rumble of the engines of two Jags, a "giant" of the Labour Party has departed.

The applause of the crowd outside, and mix of sombre silence and small laughter as the guests departed Hull Minster summarise John Prescott's legacy well.

We heard him eulogised as a man of great personality, playfulness and ambition, plagued with self doubt, but who was determined to make his mark on the world.

If you'd like to read more on how John Prescott has been remembered, you can find further coverage in our main story.

Thank you for joining us.

Image source, EPA

Speaking to the BBC, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, says of Prescott: "He was somebody I could be in awe of.

"He was somebody who could bring the north together."

Jack Straw, a cabinet minister in the New Labour years, says: "People trusted him.

"People always understood what John Prescott was talking about."

Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has been speaking outside the service.

He says: "My recollection is that John was our voice in the Westminster system."

"He spoke in a way we could connect with," he says, adding: "My god, what a life he lived."

Labour mayor of Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotherham says: "That is a role model for the soul.

"He did eventually get one of the top jobs in the country, and didn't he do well when he was there."

The funeral service for John Prescott has just finished in Hull Minster. Here's a quick recap of the tributes we heard:

• Tony Blair described Prescott as the "guardian" of the party's conscience, a "working-class boy from a small Welsh town, who rose to the highest ranks of the land by merit, by graft, by greatness of courage and character"
• And the former Labour prime minister said Prescott will be "forever memorialised" by the incident in which he punched a man who threw an egg on him in 2001
• Another former Labour PM, Gordon Brown, said of Prescott: "We will never see his like again. A man of the people he certainly was. In a class by himself, a one-off, one of a kind but one of us in the best sense of the word"
• David Prescott said his father was a man "who spent his life overcoming challenges and serving others"
• David said he wanted to give his dad the last word, ending his eulogy with a quote from his father's 1968 speech to the East Hull Labour Party when he ran to be selected as a candidate "Comrades I hope I can help," it said, with David adding: "You did dad, you did"
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his deputy, Angela Rayner, both delivered readings at the service

Holly Phillips
Reporting from Hull

Image source, BBC/Holly Phillips

We've just seen Prescott's coffin be loaded into the hearse and driven away.

As it happened, the crowd outside erupted into applause.

It is quiet again now as the guests leave - some look sombre while others are laughing.

In his closing remarks before the end of the service, the vicar of Hull talked of the creation of the NHS and new housing built following the "hard-fought" victory of the Attlee Labour government after World War Two, and the social changes that followed.

Dominic Black then turned to the New Labour anthem "things can only get better" - adding "sadly not". For many years "we lived in promising times", he says, describing increased social mobility, the fall of the Berlin Wall, peace in Northern Ireland and other changes.

But he says the rungs of the social mobility ladder are wobbling and broken, and "troubling times are afoot in our world".

History does not repeat but maybe it riffs on itself, he says, adding: "Today again we're seeing those who would offer simple, strongman solutions to the challenges of society, who would stir up again hatreds and divisions, those with furious thumbs, chattering keyboards, self-appointed judges."

But "there is hope, things can better", he says.

Canon Dominic Black ends the service with a final reading from the bible and the congregation reciting of the Lord's Prayer.

The choir of Hull schoolchildren sing a final hymn.

The canon delivers the final blessing over the coffin and the service ends with the jazz classic Always by Irving Berlin as the coffin is carried from the church.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is doing a reading from the Bible, Psalm 107.

It tells the story of merchants going out to sea, who faced with a storm lost their courage, but are then guided to safety after crying out to God for help.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner takes over from Tony Blair to read the poem Here by Hull-based poet Philip Larkin.

It describes Hull and the surrounding area

The congregation is then asked to join to sing the hymn Amazing Grace.

Blair reiterates that Prescott was a man who struggled with self-doubt, and goes on to pay tribute to his family.

"We will miss him," Blair says.

And concluding his remarks, he says "I hope if John's looking down on us, and not already in negotiation with St Peter over the accommodation, I hope he will see in this vast gathering today, a recognition of that working-class boy from a small Welsh town, who rose to the highest ranks of the land by merit, by graft, by greatness of courage and character, and he will feel deservedly at peace."

Blair continues his tribute, saying that Prescott had the brain to make an argument and personality to make it appealing.

"That personality," he says wistfully," will be forever memorialised by the punch."

He recalls the tale of Prescott punching a man who threw an egg on him in 2001.

"I'm not bloody well apologising and that's the end of it," Blair recounts Prescott telling him.

"Classic," Blair laughs.

Blair says he watched the video again, trying to feel outrage, but found himself cheering Prescott on.

We're now hearing from former PM Tony Blair.

He opens by saying: "Some lights exude a dull grey, and the challenge is to fill the canvas, and some are so bursting in colour that the challenge is to contain them in a single portrait.

"No one ever described John as dull or grey. John was a complicated man, wrestling frequently with the tangle of altruism and ambition that motivates political animals"

Prescott possessed "deep principles" but was also determined to "make his mark", Blair says. Self-doubt regularly overflowed in him, he says, but that was a spur that drove him to seek struggle and pull himself up

His achievements were extraordinary, Blair says, listing reforms he helped achieve in government.

He pioneered the idea of an integrated transport system, he championed inner city generation, Blair says, adding: "Throw him a problem and he would provide a solution."

"What places the affection alongside the admiration is John the character. There is not one of us who thinks of John without a smile," Blair says, before going on to describe him as "guardian" party's conscience and its educator.

David continues his eulogy discussing his father's health struggles - and his continued commitment to continue working.

He notes that after suffering a stroke in 2019, Prescott "set himself the task of learning to read again using his grandchildren's school books".

"Within a couple of months he amazed his doctors and terrified his family by going to back to Westminster on Hull Trains three times a week," David says.

He then pulls up a copy of his father's 1968 speech to the East Hull Labour Party when he ran to be selected as a candidate.

David Prescott concludes his eulogy reading a part of the speech, joking: "I'd like to finish this family eulogy by reading part of it so John can have the last word.

"Because, as you know, John always had the last word."

The speech ends "'Comrades I hope I can help'. You did dad, you did" his son says.

We're now hearing from David Prescott who is paying tribute to his late father on behalf of the family.

"The memories of Dad you have all shared with us have been a great source of comfort as we've sought to process our grief - so thank you," he says.

"He was a man who spent his life overcoming challenges and serving others," he says, but adds he would like to share the John Prescott that the family knew, the husband, the father and the grandfather.

He goes on to talk about his father's life and describes how John met his mother Pauline in 1957 at a bus stop.

What many people may not know is that his father was "full of self-about and incredibly shy", David says, describing how he could give a speech to a large crowd but was "very embarrassed in social situations".

We grew up in a house full of jazz, David says, describing how his brother Jonathan shares that love of music.

"For me," David says, "he taught me the importance of lifting people up and not putting people down."

Image source, Ruth Green / BBC

In a surely deliberate nod to the nickname “two Jags” the funeral cortege included a Jaguar hearse and limousine.

Lord Prescott was dubbed "two Jags" by the press after it was revealed he used two Jaguar cars – one of them his own and the second a ministerial car.

During the Labour conference in Bournemouth in 1999, his government car took him 250 yards from his hotel to the conference centre.

On stage, as environment and transport secretary, he then urged motorists to cut their carbon emissions by using public transport.

He later claimed he had taken the short journey by car because his wife, Pauline, did not like to have her hair blown about on the seafront.

The funeral congregation has been shown a short video of key moments from Prescott's political life.

The children's choir sings again before Prescott's son, David, starts his own tribute to his father.

Applause breaks out in the Minister as Gordon Brown pays tribute to John Prescott's wife Pauline.

"Remember especially today both John and Pauline together, that most glamorous couple," he says.

"I want us to thank Pauline today for her charm, for her elegance, for her dignity for her wisdom, for her partnership with and in support of John right from his seafaring and student days and across 63 years of marriage."

"Pauline we thank you for everything you have done".

"John, we remember the advice you gave in one of your final interviews," Brown concludes. "You said: be true to yourself, do what you can do for the best and especially think of others."

Continuing his tribute, Brown tells the service of Prescott's sense of humour.

He describes a time when Prescott was due to give a speech and was to be followed by Peter Mandelson. Brown recalls Prescott saying: "It's a sort of charm offensive. I'll leave you to work out who is charming and who is offensive."

Brown goes on: "We will never see his like again. A man of the people he certainly was. In a class by himself, a one-off, one of a kind but one of us in the best sense of the word."

"The John you saw in Hull and the John you saw at home was the John you saw in Downing Street," he says.

Former PM Gordon Brown delivers the opening eulogy, paying tribute to Prescott's parliamentary career.

“For sixty years this great city of Hull was John’s home," Brown says. “The home he loved, the home he served with pride, passion and principle.”

"So it’s right we meet here today in this famous 600 year-old cathedral," he adds. "Immortalised in statues and plaques all around us Hull’s members of parliament from William Wilberforce to John.”

The service has begun - Vicar of Hull Minster Dominic Black begins with a prayer.

The choir is performing Eternal Father, Strong to Save - a traditional hymn associated with seafarers.

This is an apparent nod to John Prescott's career in the Merchant Navy before he turned to politics.