For many, Prescott was and forever will be a shining beacon of the Labour Party's core values. Having left school without qualifications before becoming a union activist, a local advocate for Hull, and a working-class counterweight to Tony Blair's air of elitism, there are not many left within Labour who can truly claim to be of the people in a way Prescott so unapologetically was. A man who acted as a bridge between both Blair and Brown as well as Old and New Labour, his passing is a true loss for British politics.
Prescott's death has led to inevitable comparisons between himself and his modern equivalent, Angela Rayner. Yet this reflection on the past has only made it ever clearer that the current Labour ticket remains but a cheap imitation of the New Labour titans of the past. While Rayner is no Prescott, she is certainly helped by the fact that Starmer is even less so like Blair — only time will tell if she can achieve what her mentor couldn't quite do and lead the country as a left-wing Labour Prime Minister.