By Adegboyega Adeleye
Deleted records have revealed that British Prime Minister Andy Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak while serving as mayor of Greater Manchester.
According to the BBC, the dinners took place at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium during matches in August 2017 and April 2018, but were not specifically mentioned in a statement released by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on Monday detailing Burnham’s dealings with the club.
The revelation comes amid growing political controversy over Burnham’s previous engagements with Manchester City following an independent commission’s finding that the club breached Premier League financial regulations.
Burnham has faced calls to provide full details of his interactions with the club since expressing concern last month about the possibility of its owners selling up.
A previous GMCA register of declarations, seen by the BBC, listed a £300 hospitality dinner with Al Mubarak and then-Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese during an Everton match in August 2017.
Another entry recorded a dinner with the Manchester City chairman during the Manchester derby against Manchester United in April 2018, valued at approximately £699.
Burnham had previously declared both dinners, alongside £150 tickets to see singer Ed Sheeran perform at the stadium in May 2018.
However, the register has since been removed from the GMCA website. The BBC reported that the authority’s stated policy is to publish declarations from the current mayoral term only.
The BBC said it had asked the GMCA for further clarification about the policy, noting that the website contained entries dating back to 2022, although the current mayoral term began in 2024.
Downing Street defends Burnham
Downing Street has defended the two dinners, saying they were hospitality received at home matches and had been declared, rather than separate meetings with the Manchester City chairman.
However, political pressure on Burnham to provide greater transparency about his dealings with the club has continued to mount.
Tory shadow sports minister Louie French said Burnham had promised the country and House of Commons full transparency over his dealings with Manchester City.
French said the disclosure was essential following what he described as Burnham’s “inappropriate intervention into football”.
Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick also criticised the handling of the matter, saying “this saga stinks” as he accused Burnham of apparently concealing his links to the club’s owners.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called on Downing Street to release full details of meetings between Burnham and senior Manchester City figures.
Burnham told the Rest Is Politics podcast last week that he was willing to publish details of his engagements with the club during his time as mayor.
He said he would “quite clearly put out there everything that I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester”.
Burnham added that he had held only one significant meeting with the club, in 2021.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, he told MPs that Manchester City had not raised the charges it was facing with him or his team.
He also said he was happy for “everything to be set out in full”, describing the GMCA’s statement as a full account of his key dealings with the club’s owners.
When reporters questioned why the statement did not specifically mention the two dinners, Burnham’s press secretary referred them back to the GMCA statement.
The BBC said it had asked the authority why the dinners were not specifically listed in the published account.
Man City found guilty of financial breaches
Manchester City was found guilty in September by an independent commission of breaching Premier League financial regulations.
The commission found that the club had broken rules over nine years between 2009 and 2018, including through what it described as “sham” contracts with commercial partners to funnel more than £830m into its football operations.
Sanctions have yet to be announced, while Manchester City, which denies wrongdoing, has appealed the verdict.
The controversy over Burnham’s dealings with the club comes against the backdrop of wider scrutiny of links between Manchester City and public authorities.
Earlier this month, former Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese defended a decade-old agreement between the council and Abu Dhabi United Group, the company that owns Manchester City and is linked to the United Arab Emirates royal family.
A University of Sheffield report said land was leased to the group at “below comparable rates” under the partnership between the company and the local authority.
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