Prescott punch

The 2001 general election took place on 7 June 2001; it was the first election following the landslide victory of the Labour Party, under Tony Blair, at the general election of 1997. Labour's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, had taken charge of the Labour Party campaign, including development of the manifesto for the 2001 campaign. In 2002 political scientist Anthony King described the campaign as "one of the dullest in recent history". == Day of the incident ==

On the day of the incident, 16 May 2001, Labour had launched their manifesto at an event in Birmingham. Prescott, with other senior party figures, had travelled to the event aboard a chartered train from London. Cabinet ministers afterwards travelled to the regions to launch the manifesto locally. The home secretary, Jack Straw, travelled to Blackpool to address a conference of the Police Federation of England and Wales on the law and order pledges in the 2001 manifesto. During the same day William Hague, leader of the rival Conservative Party, was forced to abandon a planned walkabout in Wolverhampton on security advice, due to a rowdy demonstration. His campaign bus, the Prescott Express, arrived outside the theatre at 6:35 pm. During the rally a convoy of vehicles drove past the theatre, honking their horns in support of the protest. The convoy was led by Brynle Williams, a leader of the 2000 fuel protests. == Aftermath ==

Shortly after the incident Prescott made a statement that described the events as a "frightening and regrettable incident" amid a "clearly hostile" crowd. In the event neither Evans nor Prescott were charged with any criminal offence. Following the incident Prescott first made contact with Alastair Campbell, the Downing Street Director of Communications. Campbell was with Blair, who was filming an election segment for ITV News. Campbell recalled in his memoirs that there was initially silence on the line which he recognised as a sign that Prescott had a problem to relay. Campbell immediately told Prescott that he should apologise though Prescott retorted that Campbell had not when he punched Guardian political editor Michael White in the House of Commons in 1991. Campbell was then political editor of the Daily Mirror, and White had made a joke about Mirror owner Robert Maxwell who had recently died at sea. No apology was made by Prescott. Campbell informed Blair once filming had finished and they travelled from the studio in the company of PR adviser Anji Hunter who worried that "middle-class England will not understand" the reason why Prescott punched Evans. Once the footage appeared the libel threat was dropped. Brown stood by Prescott and ordered a statement prepared saying that the punch had been made in self defence. Price, in charge of the party's media strategy, refused to brief the statement before the footage had been viewed. Gould thought the incident would be viewed negatively by the public and affect Labour's poll performance. Some in the senior leadership team considered that Prescott would have to resign as the party, whose manifesto pledged to deal with yobbish behaviour, would be viewed as hypocritical. == Impact on campaigning ==

The story led in most newspapers on 17 May 2001, relegating the Labour manifesto launch to the inside pages, with most of the coverage not negative in nature. The incident was referred to as the Prescott punch, Prescott's punch or the "Rumble in Rhyl". An observer for Mass-Observation noted that the news story was one of the few election-related stories to be reported in the United States. In the 7 June general election Labour maintained a significant majority of 166 seats, down slightly from 179 in 1997. They saw their vote share fall marginally from 43.2% to 40.7% while the Conservatives saw a slight increase from 30.7% to 31.7%. Although Brown considered that the incident could have ended Prescott's political career it seems to have done no harm, though it has been described by Clarke et al. as a gaffe. It, and the Birmingham hospital incident, have been regarded as the only two memorable moments of the entire campaign. The Times Guide to the House of Commons has called the incident "one of the ugliest, and in many ways, the most humorous, scuffles of modern electoral history". Prescott considered the incident had been set-up by the Countryside Alliance as part of their protest against the proposed abolition of fox hunting. Prescott had clashed with the movement before and at the 2000 Labour Party conference had said "every time I see the Countryside Alliance and their contorted faces, I vow to redouble my efforts to abolish fox-hunting". Prescott's friend the former union leader Rodney Bickerstaffe, claimed the incident showed Prescott's age (he was then 62), "I told him it was a good left, but it had no weight. In the past, the lad would not have got up. He must be losing his touch". == References ==