Tories slam civil servant over Prescott probe
The Conservatives have accused the cabinet secretary of undermining the ministerial code in failing to investigate John Prescott over the casino row.
Shadow culture secretary Hugo Swire said he was “astonished” that Gus O’Donnell had failed to properly address his concerns that the deputy prime minister might have breached the code in meeting with American billionaire Philip Anschutz.
But the Cabinet Office insisted it was not Sir Gus’s responsibility to investigate breaches of the code of conduct – that could only be done at the instigation of the prime minister.
Mr Prescott has been under pressure to explain why he met Mr Anschutz seven times between August 2002 and last July. The American owns Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns the Dome, where it is hoping to host Britain’s first super-casino.
Mr Swire had written to the cabinet secretary asking him to examine whether Mr Prescott’s meetings, which included a weekend stay at Mr Anschutz’s Colorado ranch last summer, presented a conflict of interest.
Although the deputy prime minister has insisted he has nothing to do with casino policy, the code states “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”.
“Sir Gus has failed to even mention the code in his response,” Mr Swire said, noting that the cabinet secretary’s letter was only concerned with the behaviour of two civil servants travelling to the US with Mr Prescott.
“To treat such a serious allegation in this manner completely undermines the ministerial code. Unless these concerns are taken seriously, it will undermine any suggestions that the code in any way guarantees the standards of behaviour of government ministers.”
However, a Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Paragraph 1.3 of the ministerial code sets out very clearly that it’s not the role of the secretary of the cabinet or other officials to enforce or to investigate ministers, although they might provide ministers with private advice on matters which the code covers.”
Philip Mawer, the parliamentary standards commissioner, has already launched a full investigation into why Mr Prescott did not record his visit to the ranch in the register of MPs’ interests. The deputy prime minister has since done this.
This probe will look specifically at Mr Prescott’s behaviour as an MP, but any investigations into his behaviour as a member of government is at the discretion of Tony Blair, who insists he must have the final say on who is in his cabinet.
Auditor general John Bourn was appointed as an independent advisor to government ministers on the code of conduct following the row over culture secretary Tessa Jowell in March. He could investigate a case at Mr Blair’s request.
When he appeared before senior MPs on the liaison committee earlier this week, the prime minister was asked whether it would not be better for Sir John to be able to investigate potential code breaches on his own initiative.
Mr Blair replied: “Allegations are made against ministers the entire time.What actually happens is that these things are done in a pretty high-octane way day after day after day and if I think there is reason to believe that someone has broken the ministerial code, I will take action.
“If I think it is appropriate to bring in Sir John, I will do that, but I am not going to do that every time someone makes an allegation.”