London ? One of Kansas University’s most generous benefactors is at the center of a controversy that has put one of Britain’s top officials under political pressure to resign.

But on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said he intends to keep his job despite conflict-of-interest allegations for accepting the hospitality of Philip Anschutz, a U.S. billionaire seeking to open a big gambling casino in London.

“I will get on with doing my job and I am not leaving it. I am getting on with it,” Prescott said.

Prescott’s office said Wednesday he had not acted improperly, but had agreed to record his stay with Anschutz in the official record of lawmakers’ financial dealings, the Register of Members’ Interests.

Philip Mawer, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, said he would hold a full inquiry into the matter, following an allegation that Prescott should have recorded details of the hospitality earlier.

Mawer’s office said he expects to present a report to the House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee – which has the power to temporarily suspend lawmakers – before parliament begins a summer recess July 25.

Prime Minister Tony Blair will rule on allegations that Prescott had broken the ministerial code of conduct, a spokeswoman for the commissioner said, on customary condition of anonymity.

Prescott’s aides said there had been no impropriety in accepting hospitality from Anschutz, an oil and media mogul who bought London’s Millennium Dome in 2002 and hopes to open a large casino there.

They said Anschutz – whose worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at $6.4 billion – had refused to be paid for Prescott’s stay, but that the deputy prime minister had made a donation to charity to cover the cost of the stay.

Anschutz is a 1961 Kansas University business graduate and recipient of KU’s 1992 Distinguished Service Citation.

He and his wife, Nancy, gave KU $6.5 million to create the Marian and Fred Anschutz Library Fund. It was one of the largest gifts ever given to a public university for library acquisitions.

Among other KU projects he has supported are the Adams Alumni Center, Summerfield Hall addition, Anschutz Sports Pavilion and Jordan Haines Distinguished Professorship.

The position of Prescott, a former ship’s steward and union official who has served as Blair’s link to old-line Labour Party activists, has been in question since he admitted in May he had had an affair with a civil servant in his office.

“I am very sorry for what has happened. I do believe in a way it’s not been good for my party or government. Of course I am conscious of that,” Prescott said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Prescott confirmed meeting Anschutz seven times, including a two-night stay at the billionaire’s Colorado ranch, but insisted he had not been involved in any planning decisions involving the Dome site. Those were handled by junior ministers, he said.