Simply Red lead man Mick Hucknall is on the brink of a major payout after the city of Manchester was awarded the licence for a Super Casino last week.

The 47 year old pop star has emerged as a major shareholder at Ask Property Developments which is part of a major consortium chosen by the city council in 2004 to construct the Super Casino.

While the tender process is not yet finalised Ask Property Developments are expected to be among the favourites with Hucknall sitting on a 17 % stake of the company.

Ask were involved in controversy in 2004 when it was revealed that they had donated £5,000 to the local Labour Party weeks before the consortium won the contract to build the Super Casino if it was decided that Manchester should be the site for the arena.

Hucknall is a prominent celebrity supporter of the Governing Labour Party and is a close friend of the Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Critics at the time were outraged saying the Manchester Central Constituency Labour Party should not have accepted the cash.

The donation was logged with the Electoral Commission and there was no suggestion that the ASK bid was chosen on anything other than it’s merits.

However the issue subsequently became murkier when Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese and deputy leader Jim Battle were reported to the Standards Board over the issue.