LORD Prescott spent more than £20,000 on his failed bid to become the police and crime commissioner, it has been revealed.
Almost half came from his own pocket, while the remainder was donations to his election campaign.
However, more than half of his donations were notional sums where he was given the use of Labour Party offices or trade union offices instead of cash.
One of these was from Jack Chu, owner of Prescott's favourite Chinese restaurant Mr Chu's.
Mr Prescott was given the use of the restaurant to host a public meeting, which was attended by Tony Blair.
The pair used the basement of the restaurant to do some canvassing.
The notional amount to the campaign for the use of the restaurant was estimated at £300.
Prescott's total election campaign came to £23,485.
He received £12,615 in donations to the campaign, of which half were notional donations.
He spent £10,870 of his own money.
But the £23,485 was just a fraction of what he could have spent, with the limit for the Humberside area set at £126,520.
He travelled the region on his battle bus handing out 2,100 sheriffs badges and crossed the Humber Bridge 23 times.
He was the bookmakers' favourite when betting closed with William Hill giving him odds of 1/3 of landing the job. But he fell short when the public went to the polls.
He polled the most votes in the first round of the election on November 15 at Bridlington Spa.
But he eventually lost out to Tory Candidate Matthew Grove, who beat him by just over 2,000 votes.
Speaking after his defeat, he said: "Of course I'm disappointed to lose. I always wanted to win.
"It isn't my first time in defeat, I was beaten for the leadership twice, and that is what a democracy is about – you give people the chance to vote.
"In a normal election, we would have won but, because there were second votes, we didn't.
The veteran Labour politician said it would be his last election, but he said there was more to come from him.
He said: "I don't think I'll stand for election again but I will forever be a politician and campaigner.
"It is who I am and the party I am in.
"I'm not going to be sitting around in my slippers. I will be campaigning in my coffin.
"This is the beauty of being in the Lords, I'm still involved in politics."
Mr Prescott was unavailable for comment this weekend.
