Former deputy prime minister John Prescott has died aged 86, his family has announced.

His loved one confirmed the tragic news following a battle with Alzheimer’s, and said he had “spent his life trying to improve the lives of others, fighting for social justice and protecting the environment”.

The former trade union activist and ex-merchant seaman died “peacefully” and surrounded by relatives at his care home, they said.

Prescott was best known for his forthright style and for serving in Tony Blair‘s New Labour Government from 1997 to 2007.

Prescott was also known for having a great sense of humour but also a short fuse. While campaigning in the 2001 General Election, the then-deputy prime minister infamously punched a protester who hit him with an egg.

Ten years later, quipping about the incident on Top Gear, he told Jeremy Clarkson: “When Tony Blair asked me what had happened, I said I was carrying out his orders, you told us to connect with the electorate so I did.”

The Prestatyn-born figure was branded “two Jags” by some, seeming to mock the apparent wealth and materialism of a man appointed to demonstrate to the left of the Labour Party that Blair hadn’t abandoned socialism.

Prescott was of the classic Old Labour mould. He was the safe seat of Hull East in 1970 and stood by many of the party’s more radical positions.

However, by the end of Michael Foot’s hard-left tenure as Labour leader from 1980-83, Prescott had moved further to the centre and supported Neil Kinnock’s leadership bid. Although, after trying to usurp Kinnock’s deputy prime minister Roy Hattersley, Prescott and Kinnock fell out.

Unsuccessful bids for the leadership and deputy leadership followed, but Prescott eventually got the job of deputy to Blair in 1994.

Prescott is said to have clashed with the slick, highly-educated performers of the Blair government. In particular, Peter Mandelson whom he once described as a crab.

During Labour’s second term, Prescott increasingly found himself drawn into the role of peacemaker between Sir Tony and Mr Brown, amid the chancellor’s growing frustration at the unwillingness of his erstwhile friend to step aside.

After Labour was re-elected in 2005 with a reduced majority, those tensions became more pronounced.

Prescott meanwhile suffered personal humiliation in April 2006 when the Daily Mirror disclosed that he had been conducting a two-year affair with one of his secretaries. His wife, Pauline, was said to have been devastated.

In 2007, after Tony Blair stood down, he announced he would be leaving the Commons and in 2010 he entered the Lords as Baron Prescott of Kingston upon Hull.

He ceased to be a member of the House of Lords in July after suffering from ill health.

Official records show he had only spoken once in the chamber since suffering a stroke in 2019 and had not voted since February 2023. He died following a battle with Alzheimer’s.

His family said he had “spent his life trying to improve the lives of others, fighting for social justice and protecting the environment”.