Two dinners - but no Jag for John Prescott

The former Deputy Prime Minister, 69, has swapped Westminster for Strasbourg, where last week he led

the British delegation at the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.

Otherwise life is going on much as before - except with a French accent.

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In place of the Jag, Mr Prescott has the use of a chauffeur-driven Renault. And instead of Mr Chu's, the Chinese restaurant he regularly patronises in his Hull constituency, he has been enjoying slap-up dinners at one of the city's brasseries.

Mr Prescott's appointment as head of the 18 MPs attending the Council of Europe was announced after he quit as Deputy Premier in the summer.

He will shuttle between Strasbourg and the Commons until the next General Election, when he will stand down as an MP.

He arrived in Strasbourg on Sunday evening to attend the assembly's annual gathering and flew back on Friday.

He is not paid for his role but can claim generous expenses - which is just as well because he stayed with wife Pauline in the £200-a-night Ambassador's suite of the Hotel Maison Rouge.

For the whole conference, the couple had use of a chauffeur-driven Renault Vel Satis people-carrier, which waited for them outside their hotel every morning in the pedestrianised centre of the city.

On Thursday evening, the Prescotts went for dinner with two Labour MPs, Rudi Vis and Alan Meale, at Biere Schutzenberger, a lively brasserie which is open till midnight.

For the first 25 minutes while the quartet ate tarte flambee, a local speciality thin-crust pizza topped with bacon, onion and cream, Mr Prescott managed to hold down a conversation on his mobile.

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The party drank a bottle of local cremant white wine, poured into champagne glasses, followed by a pinot noir reservé.

Mr Prescott then enjoyed a sirloin steak with pepper sauce, chips and vegetables, while his wife had cabbage and sauteed potatoes with sauerkraut, a speciality of the Alsace region.

The bill came to just over £100. Under European expenses rules, an MP can downgrade a flight from business class to economy in return for an extra ticket for his spouse.

It is not known what arrangements were made for Mrs Prescott's travel.

One MP said: "The rules are set up perfectly if an MP wants to take the wife along.

"They have an allowance of £150 a day to spend on "subsistence" and hotels in the city charge by the room not the person, so a spouse does not show up awkwardly on the accounts."

Finchley, North London, MP Mr Vis said later that the meal was not claimed on expenses, as Mansfield MP Mr Meale had paid.