Andy Burnham is facing accusations of concealing his links to Manchester City after a resurfaced register of interests revealed he had two dinners with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak at Etihad Stadium during his first term as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
The Prime Minister reportedly received hospitality worth over £1,000 from the club, including two matchday dinners with Al Mubarak and two tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert.
Details of the hospitality
According to The Sun, a deleted register of interests from Burnham's first mayoral term details two dinners with Al Mubarak provided by City. It also discloses two tickets worth £150 to an Ed Sheeran concert at Etihad Stadium in May 2018.
The first dinner took place at City's match against Everton, the club Burnham is a season-ticket holder for, in August 2017. Deputy mayor of Greater Manchester Sir Richard Leese is said to have been at this dinner. Burnham's match ticket is said to have cost £35, but the hospitality received was worth £300, taking the total to £335.
The second dinner was at that season's Manchester derby in April 2018, with no mention of Leese on this occasion, only the City chair. It was valued at approximately £699, taking the total to £1,187, over £1,000 of which was on the two dinners shared with Al Mubarak.
Statement from GMCA
A statement released by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on Monday did not directly mention either of these dinners. Instead, it said: "In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions."
Included in that total is "attending Vincent Kompany's testimonial match in September 2019". Burnham is said to have "met the Chairman informally in the stands".
Accessibility of records
A register of interests from Burnham's second term as mayor, between 2021 and 2024, remains accessible on the GMCA website. However, details from his first term, from 2017 to 2021, are no longer available online.
Speaking about City on The Rest Is Politics, the Prime Minister said: "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."
A GMCA spokesperson said: "In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade."
