John Prescott was a great fighter and a great friend

There was nobody else like John Prescott. He was a total one-off, bigger than life. He had absolute authenticity. He never lost it.

Yes, he was combative – I remember the phone call from him during the 2001 election campaign, which he opened with, “How are you doing? I’ve just thumped a bloke.” But what the public did not see was that he had an enormous heart and a great capacity for friendship.

Tony Blair is right when he says “it is no exaggeration to say the Labour Party could never have won three consecutive full terms without John.” He was the bridge between New Labour and Old Labour – and belying his reputation, was often a peacemaker.

One of the first things Tony wanted to do on becoming leader in 1994 was to modernise the party’s constitution. We knew John would instinctively be against this. We had to persuade him, and one of the great things about John was that he could be persuaded – he would grumble, he would push back, but he would do what was right for the party in the end.

We wouldn’t have won that fight without him. Tony could not have had a better deputy.

And Labour could not have had a better campaigner. Hull, which he represented for 40 years, could not have had a better MP. The government could not have had a better negotiator – John was our lead negotiator for the Kyoto climate treaty. He was never off the phone from Japan, telling us what we needed to do, how to get the French on board. When he was passionate about something he was relentless.

John was a giant, and even through his horrible illness in later years, the old JP was always there. Now it feels like one of our greatest characters is gone. He will be missed by so many in the Labour movement and beyond