The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has arrived at Hull Minster, and will lead tributes to John Prescott – as his funeral is being streamed live in the video above.

His deputy Angela Rayner, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and Lord Prescott’s son David are also paying tribute during the 90-minute long service. It will feature a film of John’s life, with highlights of his career on the world stage as our longest serving deputy PM.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has arrived alongside a host of Labour dignitaries past and present, including Chris Mullin, 77, the former Sunderland central MP. He served as a junior minister for the Environment under John Prescott. “He was such a key figure for the Labour movement,” said Chris, a former Mirror trainee reporter.

“He was an important part of the New Labour project before the 1997 election, and key in bringing the election success. And he had that role as mediator between the two top people in the party, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

“He was authentic, that was the thing about him, and had great political instincts. He was very intelligent and sometimes his words could not keep up with his speed of thought. I held him in great affection, and he was a person of great influence who helped to make Labour electable again in 1997.”

Lord Prescott – a Labour MP for four decades – died peacefully at the age of 86 at a care home in November where he had been living with Alzheimer’s. The former trade union activist served as Tony Blair’s Deputy Prime Minister from Labour’s historic landslide election victory in 1997 until 2007.

He was known to have acted as a “marriage counsellor” for his mediating role between Sir Tony and his then Chancellor Gordon Brown, who became PM in 2007.

More than 300 family members, friends and former colleagues from the Labour movement have been invited to the service at Hull Minster. Keir Starmer said Lord Prescott “changed our nation for the better” as he said the service on Thursday was a day “to give thanks for a remarkable life well lived”.

In November Sir Tony described his former colleague as one of the most talented people I ever encountered in politics” and “one of the most committed and loyal, and definitely the most unusual”.

Mr Brown added at the time that Lord Prescott was “key to holding the ring and keeping things together during difficult times such as over Iraq”.

He once said of his famous punch for a protester: “People won’t remember me for my 40 years in parliament. Instead, I’ll be remembered for 40 seconds of my life.”

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But what a life. Labour leaders past and present will honour him alongside his widow Lady Paula, and their sons Jonathan and David.

They are in a congregation of 300 people who came to remember the former deputy prime minister, who died in November aged 86.

A huge security operation is in place around Hull Minster, England’s largest parish church, due to the presence of current Cabinet ministers and former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Prescott once described himself as their marriage guidance counsellor following the 1997 Labour election victory.

His family said he “spent his life trying to improve the lives of others, fighting for social justice and protecting the environment” following his death in a care home in November. He had Alzheimer’s, and died surrounded by loved ones.

Brian Lavery, 65, a former journalist turned author, is one of the 300 invited to the service today.

He told how they would often fall out in his early days as a reporter in Hull but John would never bear a grudge.

“We started off with daggers drawn, but he was one of a kind, and we became firm friends,” he said. “We will never see his likes again. There was a genuineness about John. He may have had a quick temper but he also had an innate sense of fairness.

“When a former miner was elected for Labour, John went to meet him off the train in London. He only had one suit and he was wearing it. John gave him £5, and told him to open an account in Burton’s and buy a couple of suits. Can you imagine that happening today?

“John was always super polite with waiters if you went to a restaurant with him because he used to be one himself. He was not a wishy washy politician, you knew what he stood for.”

The King said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of Prescott’s death. He paid tribute to his “decades of public service”, saying he remembered with “great fondness his unique and indomitable character, as well as his infectious sense of humour”.

Prescott was perhaps best known for punching the protester Craig Evans in 2001, after an egg was thrown at him in Rhyl, Wales. Evans accused Labour of abandoning rural areas, and later said: “He was boiling with rage.” Blair said at the time: “John is John.”

Prescott served the people of Hull for most of his adult life. Voted the most popular politician in the country by one poll in 1997, he was ennobled in 2010 after representing the city in parliament for four decades, and loved being the ‘Mouth of the Humber’.

Pauline, his wife of 63 years, said being an MP for the city had been “his greatest honour”. Hosted by the Rev Canon Dominic Black, the funeral service will include singing from the Choral-Hull children’s choir, made up from pupils across the city.

The Prime Minister said Lord Prescott will be remembered as a “man who stood up for working people” and “fought for what he believed in”.

Sir Keir said: “John Prescott’s funeral is a moment to reflect on his legacy alongside those that loved him most.Since his death, I have been moved to hear countless people relate their stories of John, tales of characteristic generosity, humour and charisma.

“Amongst the public, it’s clear that he had legendary status. He was held in huge affection by people across the country who admired his straightforward authenticity and knew that he would always have their back.

“His place in our history is assured – not, as he expected, for that one famous moment, but for his fighting spirit across an entire lifetime of service.

“He will be remembered as a man who stood up for working people, fought for what he believed in, and changed our nation for the better. We have his tenacity and vision to thank for that early action on climate change, regional inequality, the minimum wage, and public transport.

“This is a day to give thanks for a remarkable life well lived. I know many people will be raising a glass to John today.”

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