JOHN PRESCOTT, the deputy prime minister, is under pressure to reveal whether he has reclaimed the cost of the council tax on his family home in Hull.

Last week Prescott was forced to apologise after The Sunday Times revealed that he was not required to pay council tax on any of his three properties out of his own pocket.

The deputy prime minister, who has presided over a 76% increase in council tax since Labour took office, said last week that an “inadvertent error had occurred, based on a genuine misunderstanding”, which meant he had not paid council tax since 1997 on his official London residence.

The taxpayer had been footing the bill for the £2.3m apartment in Admiralty House and Prescott has now repaid £3,830 to the exchequer after owning up to the mistake.

He has also offered to pay “several thousand pounds” extra to Westminster council because the government was charged the discounted rate for a second home.

Questions have also been raised about the tax he pays for the benefit in kind he enjoys from living in a government-owned flat in central London. One tax accountant suggested he should pay £46,000 a year.

However, the situation with his family home is still not clear. In a statement Prescott said that he had been paying council tax on his Hull constituency home, an eight-bedroom turreted residence on the outskirts of the city.

Officials insist that the tax has been paid at the “full rate”, not at the discounted second-home rate, but they refuse to say whether he subsequently claims the money back as a “parliamentary expense”. If Prescott’s house is in Hull city council’s top band, it will be liable for council tax at £2,285.

According to a well-placed House of Commons source, virtually every MP with a constituency outside London does claim their council tax bill as an expense — on the basis that it is a second home. A spokesman for Prescott said: “He abides by the rules.”

Prescott has claimed almost £40,000 between 2002 and 2004 for the upkeep of his constituency property. This sum is likely to include the costs of council tax.

Prescott also has the use of an official country residence, Dorneywood in Buckinghamshire, the council tax for which is paid by the charitable trust that looks after the house.

Yesterday the Conservatives said they would be asking the parliamentary authorities to investigate the system and to establish what has happened in Prescott’s case. Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, is also planning to set out clear procedures to ensure that ministers who are allocated official residences are given clear guidance on dealing with their council tax liabilities.

Caroline Spelman, shadow secretary for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), said: “Council tax payers up and down the country are struggling to pay their bills. It is only proper that we discover exactly what arrangements Mr Prescott has made to pay his. There appears to be a case for the Commons authorities to have another look at his allowances.”

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