JOHN PRESCOTT is facing a parliamentary investigation into his conduct after accepting hospitality from the billionaire American owner of the Millennium Dome.

The inquiry is to focus on the Deputy Prime Minister’s two-day stay at the 32,000-acre American ranch of Philip Anschutz, which was revealed in The Times on Saturday. Yesterday Mr Prescott admitted that he had held six other meetings with Mr Anschutz since August 2002, but denied that the trip reflected a conflict of interest or needed to be reported to Parliament.

As a result Downing Street was forced to declare Tony Blair’s full confidence in Mr Prescott, only two months after the Deputy Prime Minister caused huge embarrassment by admitting that he had cheated on his wife and by being photographed playing croquet while the Prime Minster was out of the country.

Mr Prescott will be in charge of the country once again next month while the Prime Minister is on holiday. Senior Labour MPs suggested that pressure on him could become intolerable if the disclosures continue into the summer holidays.

The investigation by Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, could hang over him while he is running the country. Sir Philip said in a letter to Hugo Swire, the Shadow Culture Secretary, that he was making preliminary enquiries before deciding on how to proceed.

Mr Prescott’s position has been made even more difficult because of new allegations about him on websites, and rumours in Westminster that one of his former government car drivers is about to “tell all” in a newspaper.

The Times revealed last week that Mr Prescott stayed for free with Mr Anschutz on his ranch on Colorado during a “day off” as part of a nine-day trip to the United States. A donation was later made to charity — by the taxpayer — to cover the cost of a hotel room.

But it became clear yesterday that the donation, which the department said was the equivalent of a hotel room, was worth just £40 per person per night. Mr Anschutz’s ranch is on a 32,000-acre Rocky Mountain estate, which has a nine-hole golf course and health spa. Mr Prescott also admitted that the stay lasted two nights rather than one, and he was accompanied by two civil servants and a media adviser.

The code of conduct for ministers states: “It is a well established and recognised rule that no minister or public servant should accept gifts, hospitality or services from anyone which would, or might appear to, place him or her under an obligation.”

Mr Prescott insisted that at no point during the trip did he or his staff discuss business. “I spent [Sunday] travelling around the large cattle ranch, discussing with ranch staff the issues and problems of running a large-scale farming enterprise,” he said in a letter to the Conservatives last night. But a spokeswoman admitted that the Dome would have been discussed on several of the other occasions that the pair met. “It’s fair to say that we discussed the Dome from a regeneration point of view, post-sale.”

Hugo Swire, the Shadow Culture Secretary, said the letter raised more questions than it answered. “Why, just two days after staying at the Anschutz ranch, did Mr Prescott fly to Los Angeles to have drinks with Tim Leiwke, chief executive of AEG, Mr Anschutz’s company running the Dome?

“Why is Mr Prescott denying responsibility for the Dome when his department’s own press release clearly shows he was the man in charge from July 2002? We must have more information about why all these meetings took place, and what was the outcome.”

The visit is particularly sensitive because Mr Anschutz is hoping that the Dome will be given permission to open Britain’s first supercasino. News Corporation, parent company of The Times, owns a 10 per cent stake in the Dome.

It also emerged yesterday that the Deputy Prime Minister was more heavily involved with casino policy than previously revealed. Richard Caborn, the Gambling Minister, who is close to Mr Prescott, told the Commons on Monday: “The Deputy Prime Minister had no role in planning, had no role in negotiation and has had no role in the siting of casinos.” Yesterday it was revealed that Mr Prescott toured a casino in Australia in November 2004, but declared it in the official list of ministers’ overseas travel as a “regeneration site visit”.

His department also issued revised national planning regulations on casinos. This directly affected the planned casino for the Millennium Dome.

Mr Prescott toured the Star City Casino, in Sydnet, during a government trip, which he undertook “to get a feel for what an establishment of that size was like”.

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