'You are buggers, you people' Prescott in furious Brexit row with BBC host over Tony Blair

Appearing on the Daily Politics programme, the former Deputy Prime Minister was asked if the new generation of Labour supporters should “keep listening to Blair” to which the politician insisted “no, not now”.

Lord Prescott said “his age has passed, so has mine” but added: “I’ll argue my case and Tony can do his bit but at the end, they’re going to make the decision – the ones that come to the next 51 conferences are not me, I’ll be dead and buried.”

But the presenter proceeded to roast Lord Prescott over his response.

She said: “So you don’t mind him talking in the way that you say you’re going to continue talking but you don’t think anyone in Labour should listen to him?”

The interview became heated as the politician insisted he “didn’t say that” before Coburn cut in and added: “You did, you just said ‘not now’.”

A blunder followed as Lord Prescott said: “You are buggers, you people.”

The host then scolded the former Hull East MP and replied: “Don’t use the B word – it’s too late, you’ve said it now.”

The awkward exchange continued as Lord Prescott insisted he and Mr Blair “belong to the past” after Coburn asked if young people should listen to the former Prime Minister on Brexit.

Lord Prescott said: “It’s up to everybody to make their own decisions about that. I belong to the past, so does Tony Blair, we might have had different views but there’s a new generation coming up.

“Let them hear what we’ve got to say but when you say listen to him – listen’s right, you don’t have to accept what he’s actually saying.”

The exchange comes after Mr Blair told an American summit Brexit would leave Britain “diminished”, in another intervention last week.

Mr Blair claimed Britain will be “relegated” in its position as he appeared alongside David Miliband, who said Britons were “victims” and ordered a “push back” at the conference on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The former PM told the Concordia summit: “To take ourselves out of the biggest political union, and the largest commercial market, right on our doorstep, is going I think to diminish us and relegate us as a country.”