John Prescott's wife is reunited with love child she put into care 47 years ago

THE WIFE of the deputy prime minister John Prescott has been reunited with the love child she gave away as a teenager, it emerged yesterday.

Pauline Prescott put her son into care when he was just three months old and had him formally adopted at three years of age.

The deputy prime minister, John Prescott, had supported his then girlfriend as she decided what she should do with the child, who was fathered by another man before the couple met.

The existence of the child was kept secret until it emerged yesterday that Pauline had been reunited with her son, Paul Watton, 47, now the most senior military policeman in Scotland and Northern England.

John Prescott said he met Paul Watton for the first time after a tabloid newspaper tracked him down two years ago and told the soldier who his mother was. Over the last two years, Watton is said to have forged a strong relationship with his natural mother and bonded with the couple’s two adult sons, his half-brothers Johnathan, 40 and 33-year-old David.

Mrs Prescott, 64, then known by her maiden name of Tilston, fell pregnant with Paul in 1955 when she was 16 and working as a hairdresser in a department store in her home town of Chester.

She gave birth to Paul on January 2, 1956, and looked after him for the first three months. But, with her father dead, her mother working in a low-paid laundry job and society disapproving of single mothers, she placed her son in a children’s home.

She continued to visit him at the home until 1959, when she stopped because she could not bear to say goodbye to him at the end of visits. A year later, in October 1960, the boy was adopted by Ted and Mary Watton.

Pauline Prescott is thought to maintain that in the harsh moral climate of 1950s Britain, she had no choice but to make the heart-breaking decision to give her son a better home than the one she could provide herself.

Pauline Prescott met her future husband, the deputy prime minister, in 1957 while out dancing to a jazz band. John Prescott, then working as a steward for Cunard cruise liners, was home on shore leave.

The Prescotts were told of Paul Watton’s identity on August 31, 2001, by the same tabloid which had traced him, but contact only began a fortnight after they were informed of each other’s identities. The newspaper involved, the News of the World, did not run the story.

In a statement issued by his office, John Prescott said: "We are all delighted that Paul has joined us and made our family complete.

"We have made this public statement and we do not intend to make any further comment.

"We’d now like to continue our normal family life. We hope the media will understand and allow us to do so."

Martine McNee, a spokeswoman for the Army in Scotland, said: "Lieutenant Colonel Paul Watton is the Provost Marshal of the Army’s 2 Division, which means he is in charge of the Royal Military Police for Scotland and Northern England."

She added: "He knew this was coming out and has taken his mother away for a holiday."

Watton is based at 2 Division’s Craigiehall headquarters just outside South Queensferry.

He joined the Army in 1978 as a second lieutenant and joined the Royal Military Police after going to Sandhurst.

He has served in Germany and Northern Ireland and was awarded the MBE nine years ago for his work in the province.