By MARTIN BECKFORD, POLICY EDITOR
Published: | Updated:
Andy Burnham was left squirming over the true extent of his dealings with Manchester City's bosses.
The Prime Minister has been forced to order a new audit and seemed to admit not all of his meetings with the club's owners may have been published.
He revealed he has now asked Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to carry out a 'manual trawl' of gifts and hospitality he received when mayor as details of his undisclosed dinners and freebie tickets emerged.
Tory sports spokesman Louie French said: 'The Prime Minister told Parliament that he would publish all of his Man City dealings on Monday afternoon. It didn't happen, and he cannot blame the GMCA for that fact.
'It is his responsibility – he isn't the Mayor of Manchester now, he's the Prime Minister. Burnham must come to the House and apologise for misleading the public and ensure that the 'manual trawl' of records he has ordered leaves no stone unturned.
'Football fans and the country deserve full transparency.'
Andy Burnham pictured speaking to employees during a visit to a Charity in Manchester on Thursday
Mr Burnham faced calls to come clean about how close he was to the football club after he said he would be 'really concerned to lose' its UAE owners when the club was found guilty of systematically breaking Premier League finance rules over a decade.
He told one podcast: 'I will quite clearly put out there everything that I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester.' He insisted he'd only had one 'significant' meeting and that was in 2021.
In the Commons on Monday, he assured MPs: 'All my dealings will be published this afternoon in relation to any meetings with the owners of Manchester City.'
But then GMCA issued only a brief statement that mentioned one 'formal meeting' Mr Burnham had with City's chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak in 2021, and another occasion in 2019 when the pair met 'informally in the stands' during a match.
It was then revealed that a deleted register of gifts and hospitality showed Mr Burnham had, in fact, also enjoyed two hospitality dinners with Mr Al Mubarak in 2017 and 2018, valued at £999 in total, along with a £150 pair of tickets to see singer Ed Sheeran at the Etihad Stadium.
It was reported he also met City's chief executive Ferran Soriano in 2023 and former chief operating officer Roel de Vries last year.
During Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Mr Burnham said: 'I am very happy for everything to be set out in full.'
Asked why he hadn't declared the dinners, Mr Burnham insisted: 'No, it was included in the statement. It referenced meetings and hospitality at Manchester City when I was there as a guest.'
But he went on: 'I've asked them [GMCA] to do a more manual trawl of everything because I want everything possible to be out there.'