Tony Blair chokes up in emotional tribute to John Prescott: ‘I’m devastated’

Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair pays tribute to John PrescottBBC

Transcript

00:00I'm feeling devastated actually. I mean we knew it was coming because he'd been very ill

00:07but my deepest condolences to Pauline, to David and Jonathan, the family who were a huge support

00:14to him. And yeah, there was no one quite like him in British politics.

00:19Yes, you've said that without him the Labour Party couldn't have won

00:24three consecutive full terms. What do you think it was?

00:30Well he had, I mean people often used to see him as traditional Labour as opposed to new Labour and

00:38that was true to a degree. I mean he obviously came from a completely different background from

00:42me. He reached parts of the Labour Party, parts of the electorate that probably I couldn't reach.

00:47But he was actually an innovator. He was highly, highly intelligent. That was sometimes masked by,

00:55people used to make fun of his speeches and his use of the English language.

01:00But he was an incredibly direct communicator.