Veteran Labour politician, who has died aged 86, was ‘very intelligent’ but ‘with no airs about him’

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Tributes have been pouring in for John Prescott, the deputy prime minister from 1997 to 2007, who has died aged 86.

The son of a railway signalman, Prescott was born in Prestatyn, Wales, in 1938 and left school at 15 to work as a trainee chef and then as a steward on the Cunard Line before entering politics.