Records show Andy Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman at Etihad matches
Andy Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak at Etihad Stadium matches in 2017 and 2018 while he was mayor of Greater Manchester, and entries documenting those dinners have been deleted from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) register of declarations, the BBC reports.
The GMCA on Monday released a list of Burnham's meetings with Manchester City from his time as mayor and said he had a formal meeting with Al Mubarak in October 2021 at the UK Government's Global Investment Summit, arranged by the Department for International Trade. The authority also stated he met the club chairman "informally in the stands" at a testimonial match in 2019 for former player Vincent Kompany and that, "in his capacity as mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City at home matches on a small number of occasions." The GMCA statement did not specify that two separate hospitality dinners had taken place.
A previous GMCA register of declarations, seen by the BBC, recorded a "dinner with [then-Manchester City Council leader] Richard Leese and Chair of Man City" for an Everton match at the Etihad in August 2017, valued at £300, and an entry for a "dinner with the Chairman at the Man City/Man Utd derby at the Etihad" in April 2018, valued at approximately £699. The register also showed Burnham had declared a £150 pair of tickets to see Ed Sheeran at the stadium in May 2018. The register has since been deleted from the GMCA website; The Sun first reported the deletion, and the BBC understands the authority's policy is to publish entries only from the current mayoral term.
The BBC has asked GMCA for further details about that publication policy, noting the website contains entries dating back to 2022 despite the current mayoral term beginning in 2024. The BBC has also asked GMCA why the two hospitality dinners were not specifically mentioned in the document released on Monday.
Downing Street defended the dinners, saying the hospitality was received at home games and had been declared, rather than constituting separate meetings with the club chairman. Political criticism continued: Tory shadow sports minister Louie French said, "Andy Burnham promised the country and House of Commons full transparency on his dealings with Manchester City. "This was essential after his inappropriate intervention into football." Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has demanded that No 10 release all details of meetings between the prime minister and senior figures at the club.
Burnham, who was mayor until June, told the Rest Is Politics podcast: "I've been asked by the leader of the opposition to publish details of my meetings, which I'm happy to do and I'm going to. "I will quite clearly put out there everything that I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester. "None of it is recent, actually, in terms of the meetings I had. I only had one significant meeting, actually, and that was in 2021." The list published by GMCA did not include detail on what was discussed at the meetings.
In September an independent commission found Manchester City guilty of breaching Premier League financial regulations, concluding the club had broken rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018 by creating "sham" contracts with commercial partners to secretly funnel more than £830m into their football operations. Sanctions are yet to be announced and City, which denies any wrongdoing, has lodged an appeal. Separately, Sir Richard Leese defended a decade-old deal between Manchester City Council and Abu Dhabi United Group after a University of Sheffield report said land had been leased to ADUG at "below comparable rates."
The BBC has asked GMCA for more information about its register policy and the omission of the two dinners, while the outcome of the independent commission's findings remains pending as Manchester City pursues an appeal.
