Britainupdated 1h ago3 min read
Andy Burnham Faces Scrutiny Over Deleted Man City Hospitality Dinners With Khaldoon Al Mubarak
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Burnham reportedly dined twice with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at Man City in 2017 and 2018. Deleted records in the register of interests prompted scrutiny over his Man City ties.
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Hospitality dinners scrutiny
Andy Burnham faced renewed scrutiny over his links to Manchester City after BBC Breakfast presenter Sally Nugent said he received hospitality tickets to two games and that the details were not included in a statement released by a GMCA spokesman earlier this week. The GMCA statement about Burnham’s meetings did not specify that it referred to two separate hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, even though the statement described a formal meeting in October 2021 at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit and an informal meeting in the stands at a testimonial match in 2019 for former player Vincent Kompany. A previous GMCA register of declarations for Burnham showed a “dinner with [then-Manchester City Council leader] Richard Leese and Chair of Man City” for an Everton match at the Etihad Stadium in August 2017 valued at £300, and a “dinner with the Chairman at the Man City/Man Utd derby at the Etihad” in April 2018 valued at approximately £699.
Burnham previously declared those dinners alongside a £150 pair of tickets to see Ed Sheeran perform at the stadium in May 2018, and the register of declarations has since been deleted from the GMCA website. Downing Street defended the two dinners with Man City’s chairman as hospitality received at home games that had been declared, rather than separate meetings with the club chairman.
Opposition presses for answers
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch demanded that No 10 release all details of meetings between the prime minister and senior figures at the club, as the pressure on Burnham to be clearer about former discussions continued to mount. Tory shadow sports minister Louie French said: "Andy Burnham promised the country and House of Commons full transparency on his dealings with Manchester City." Burnham 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."
Burnham added in the same podcast interview that he would "quite clearly put out there everything that I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester," and he said, "None of it is recent, actually, in terms of the meetings I had." The BBC reported that the list of meetings published by the GMCA on Monday did not include detail on what was discussed, and that the BBC asked GMCA why the two dinners were not specifically mentioned.
Premier League case and fallout
Manchester City’s guilty verdict over Premier League financial rules has intensified the political focus on Burnham’s contacts, after an independent commission found the club guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules between 2009 and 2018. The commission found City 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 were yet to be announced and City, which denies any wrongdoing, has lodged an appeal against the verdict.
“They did not raise those issues with me.”
In Parliament, Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew asked Burnham whether anyone associated with the running of Manchester City Football Club raised the charges they were facing either with him or any member of his team, and Burnham replied: "They did not raise those issues with me." The Manchester Evening News reported that Burnham said he was “very happy” to set out details of the meetings after they were published on Monday, and it quoted a GMCA spokesman saying Burnham had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak in October 2021 and was a guest at home matches on a small number of occasions.