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Prescott faces new controversy
05/07/2006 13:07 - (SA)
London - Britain's deputy prime minister, John Prescott, was plunged into fresh controversy after disclosing that he had seven meetings with a US gambling tycoon bidding to set up a super casino in London.
The revelation on Tuesday prompted the threat of an investigation by the parliamentary standards watchdog just weeks before Prescott takes over responsibility for running the country while Prime Minister Tony Blair goes on holiday.
Blair's office was forced to declare that the British leader retained "full confidence" in his deputy.
The furore emerged after Prescott wrote to the main opposition Conservatives to confirm that his meetings with Philip Anschutz took place over a three-year period, culminating in a visit to the tycoon's Colorado ranch last July.
'Bad smell'
But he strongly denied that they had discussed the sale of the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, southeast London - acquired by the Anschutz Entertainment Group in 2002 - or the awarding of casino licences.
"I can categorically confirm that no discussion took place about the sale of the Dome - indeed contracts had been signed three years earlier - nor about the awarding of regional casino licences," Prescott said in the letter to Hugo Swire, the Conservative spokesperson for culture.
Swire, however, was unimpressed by Prescott's comments, telling BBC radio there was a "bad smell around all this".
He said: "Why on earth did the deputy prime minister, the second most powerful political figure in the land, have seven meetings with somebody who wants to bid for the only slot available for a regional casino?"
Upping the pressure, parliamentary standards commissioner Philip Mawer said he was considering a complaint from Swire that Prescott failed to declare the stay at Anschutz's ranch in the register of interests of members of parliament.
Extramarital affair
Prescott, second in command to Blair since the Labour Party came to power nine years ago, was mired in controversy in April when he owned up to an extramarital affair with a secretary 24 years his junior.
The scandal ended in the prime minister reducing his deputy's duties as part of a major cabinet shake-up in May.
Most recently, 68-year-old Precott gave up his grace-and-favour Dorneywood country estate, saying his free use of the house had become a matter of controversy and criticism.
- AFP
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