Our correspondent in Mr Chu’s, Angus Young, shares a personal memory of a great Hullensian, who is being laid to rest today.
Today more than 300 guests are expected to attend the funeral of Lord Prescott at Hull Minster. Family, friends and Labour Party colleagues will honour the life and legacy of a man who was not only the UK’s longest-serving deputy prime minister but also the MP for Hull East for a record-breaking 40 years. Having reported on politics in Hull for 30 years, I have many memories of him with the last time I saw him in political action sticking with me most.

It was a freezing cold January morning in 2018 and local VIPs had gathered in the refurbished former pumping station on Alexandra Dock for the official launch of Transport for the North’s new 30-year masterplan. As the speakers lined up on the stage a familiar figure appeared at the doorway.
“It’s a bloody fraud!” shouted Prescott from the back of the room. “It (TfN) was promised to have statutory powers. Now we know, and it’s been confirmed by the government, it will have no powers. It can’t make any decisions because it doesn’t get any money.” With that, he turned on his heels and stormed out leaving an awkward silence among the VIPs in his wake.
As was often the case, there was a touch of theatre about his brief appearance underlined by the fact he just happened to come across a BBC TV crew in the adjacent room giving him the opportunity to repeat his “bloody fraud” line for the cameras before storming off for a second time. Had it all been pre-arranged? Probably. Even if not, his criticism of a body conceived under successive Conservative governments made national headlines. Few could bash the Tories like Prescott.

Following his death in November, he’s also set to make a posthumous appearance on the big screen by playing himself in a cameo role in The Last Trip, a feature-length comedy about five real-life retired Hull fishermen who steal a trawler for one final adventure at sea. In the scene, Lord Prescott pokes fun at himself by wearing a T-shirt with the logo: ‘You can’t buy happiness but you can buy a Jaguar which is the same thing’.
Northern Films director Andrew Fenton, whose own ex-trawlerman father stars as one of the crew members, said he hoped the film would also serve as a tribute to the late politician. He added: “At one point we were almost at the point of giving up on the film but John and Alan Johnson both gave us the encouragement to push on.
“When I told John about the idea for the film he just said: ‘Well lad, you better get on with it and don’t whisper about it down a well. Get on a bloody hill and yell about it. We need something like this for Hull. At that point, I suggested he could play himself and asked if he was in. He replied: ‘Of course I’m in. We remain extremely grateful to John and his wife Pauline who allowed us to film at their home in Hull to create a humorous cameo piece for the film.”
The Last Trip, starring John Prescott, will be released in cinemas later this Spring.