Deleted records show Burnham had two dinners with Manchester City chairman
Developing story first seen 4 hours ago
Newly reported details show that Andy Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak in 2017 and 2018, which were not specified in a recent Greater Manchester Combined Authority statement. The omission has intensified calls for transparency about Burnham’s contacts with the club, after he said he would be concerned if its owners sold up.
A former register listed the dinners at £300 and about £699, and also recorded £150 tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert at the Etihad Stadium. The register has since been removed; the GMCA says it publishes declarations only from the current mayoral term, though its website includes entries dating to 2022. Downing Street said the dinners were declared match hospitality, while Burnham has said he is willing to publish details of his dealings with the club.
- Records show two dinners with Manchester City’s chairman.
- The GMCA statement did not specify the dinners.
- Political pressure for fuller transparency is growing.
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Andy Burnham is the elected mayor of Greater Manchester, a role he has held since 2017. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which brings together the mayor and local council leaders, publishes information about the mayor’s official contacts and interests.
Manchester City is a major football club based at the Etihad Stadium. Its chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, is also a senior figure in the club’s ownership, which has faced scrutiny over its record and the way the club is run.
Hospitality such as dinners and match tickets can be declared by public officials when provided by outside organisations. The declarations register matters because it allows the public to see what hospitality was received and assess whether official contacts are being disclosed.
Both sides, in good faith
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The case for
The dinners were declared in the hospitality register, and the GMCA says its removal reflects a routine policy of publishing entries only from the current mayoral term. Downing Street says the hospitality was declared, and Burnham has offered to publish details of his work with the club; these points support the view that the record’s removal does not itself show concealment.
The case against
Because the dinners were not mentioned in the GMCA statement about Burnham’s contacts with the club, their omission may leave the public with an incomplete picture, even if they appeared in an earlier register. Given scrutiny of his comments about the club’s ownership, fuller disclosure could help people assess whether hospitality or relationships might affect his public statements.
Full account
Records previously published by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) show that Andy Burnham attended two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak while serving as mayor of Greater Manchester. The entries, reported by the BBC and later highlighted by the Daily Mail, appeared on a register of interests that has since been removed from the authority’s website.
One entry records a dinner with Al Mubarak and then Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese at the Etihad Stadium during a match against Everton in August 2017. It lists £300 for hospitality and a ticket worth £38. A second entry describes a dinner with the club chairman at the Manchester derby in April 2018, valued at about £699. The register also recorded a pair of tickets to see Ed Sheeran at the stadium, worth £150. Together, the reported benefits came to nearly £1,200.
The records have resurfaced as Burnham faces questions about his dealings with the club after a Premier League hearing found Manchester City guilty of systematically breaching league rules. The club has said it will appeal. Burnham drew criticism after expressing concern about the prospect of the owners selling the club, then said he would make information about his dealings with them public. At Prime Minister’s Questions, he said no one associated with City had raised the charges with him or his team.
A GMCA statement issued on Monday described a formal meeting with Al Mubarak at a government investment summit in October 2021 and an informal conversation in the stands at Vincent Kompany’s 2019 testimonial. It also said Burnham had been a guest at a small number of home matches, but did not identify the two dinners. Downing Street said the dinners were declared hospitality at matches, rather than separate meetings with the chairman. GMCA’s reported policy is to publish declarations only from the current mayoral term; the BBC said it had asked why the website retained some entries dating from 2022 despite the term beginning in 2024.
Where outlets differ
The BBC report centres on the two dinners missing from Monday’s GMCA summary and the authority’s publication policy. The Daily Mail gives greater prominence to claims that Burnham misled the public or concealed links, and foregrounds political criticism and his answer at Prime Minister’s Questions. The reports also differ in how they date the Everton entry: the BBC says August 2017, while the Daily Mail describes it as 17 August but says “later that year” after mentioning an April 2020 date for the derby entry; the BBC dates the derby dinner to April 2018. The Mail’s account appears to contain a date error for the derby, since the BBC report and the stated match context place it in 2018.
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Originally published by BBC Sport as “Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Man City chairman, deleted records show”.