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When Labour bruiser John Prescott lost his fight to become Humberside's Police Commissioner, there were plenty of old opponents ready to count him out. 

The former Deputy PM was beaten on points (2,231 votes to be precise) and given a bloody nose by a little-known Tory councillor in the final round of a 40-year political career. 

Lord Prescott was expected to skulk off, lick his wounds and leave the public arena for good – to swap his bovver boots for carpet slippers. 

But, John points out in typical Prescott-speak, “They misunderestimated me again”. 

“I didn't feel humiliated,” he says. “I wanted it, I fought but I didn't win – so life goes on. 

“Retire? They couldn't find a pair of slippers big enough! I'm not a slippers man me, am I? 

“The wife keeps wondering when we can take a proper break, but she knows me too well. 

"I'm not saying I'll keep going until I drop, but I still want to be in the political framework. 

"I've still got a voice and I intend to use it.” 

From tomorrow, that voice will boom from the pages of the Sunday Mirror as the Labour legend joins his favourite newspaper as a columnist. 

John's well aware some readers will be surprised. 

“Prezza” has had a stormy relationship with the media over the years, reflected in his many nicknames. 

He became “Two Jags” for owning a Jaguar and keeping another as his official ministerial car, then “Two Jabs” after throwing a left hook at a protester who pelted him with an egg on the campaign trail in 2001. 

His two-year affair with former secretary Tracey Temple hit the headlines in 2006. 

More recently he's been leading the campaign for tighter Press regulation after becoming a victim of phone hacking. 

John smiles wryly: “Yes, some people will think it's ironic that I've joined a newspaper. 

"But I know the power of good, campaigning journalism. 

"Pauline and I have always read the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror and I feel proud that it's now giving me a voice to talk to Britain about what matters. 

“Since leaving government I can speak my mind like never before. 

"I'd always done that in Cabinet, but in public I had to be more careful. 

"There was enough of a difference between Gordon and Tony without adding in Prescott as well. 

“But now I can speak for JP – and for Mirror readers.duvetica jackets I might put a few backs up – I know I'm Marmite. 

"But after 40 years in politics I think I've got credit – even with Tories – for telling it like it is.” 

We're chatting at John's elegant home, dubbed Prescott Towers, in Hull, where he served as MP for Hull East from 1970 to 2010. 

Born in Prestatyn, North Wales,discount gucci handbags his father was a railway signalman and his mother a maid. 

He failed his 11-plus and left school at 15 to train as a chef, later taking to the seas as a steward on Cunard liners and becoming an official of the National Union of Seamen.shop chanel bags 

At 18 he took up boxing and, after entering Parliament in 1970, made a name for himself as a combative opponent. 

When Labour swept to power in 1997 after 18 years in opposition, Tony Blair made him his number two. 

He retired as an MP in 2010 and became a peer in the House of Lords. 

Now Baron Prescott of Kingston-upon-Hull in the County of East Yorkshire is ushering me into a sitting room full of family photos. 

“Do you want tea, love?” he asks. 

“Would you like a ham sandwich? I've just had stew for lunch but I can make you one.” 

I settle for tea and he fetches in two mugs on saucers, deftly balancing both in one hand, still showing off his stewarding skills. 

“I've just taken one up to Pauline,” he says.burberry bags 

“She's done her knee in. We're a right pair. I broke my ribs when we were in the Derbyshire Dales, slipped on ice hiking.louis vuitton borse” 

He settles into an armchair in what he calls “Cinema Two”.