Burnham hospitality records add detail to Manchester City contacts

Previously declared hospitality records show that Andy Burnham attended two dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak while serving as Greater Manchester mayor, BBC News reported on Wednesday. The details have renewed scrutiny of the prime minister's contacts with the club following its Premier League financial rules case.

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The BBC said an earlier register listed hospitality worth £300 at City's August 2017 match against Everton, attended with then-council leader Richard Leese. A second entry recorded approximately £699 for a dinner with the chairman at the Manchester derby in April 2018. Both occasions had been declared by Burnham.

Those dinners were not individually identified in the authority's statement on Monday. Downing Street said they were declared matchday hospitality, not separate meetings. The BBC reported that older declarations had been removed under a policy of publishing current-term entries, but said it had sought clarification because some older entries remained online.

Manchester News, reporting on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority's disclosure, said it identified a formal meeting between Burnham and Al Mubarak at the government's Global Investment Summit in October 2021. It also recorded an informal encounter in the stands at Vincent Kompany's September 2019 testimonial and a small number of declared visits to City's home games.

The same account described a wider relationship between the region's sporting organisations and official business trips. City staff supported visits to China and Japan, while Manchester United representatives joined trips to Austin and Dublin and Lancashire Cricket Club joined an India delegation. The statement did not identify the City employees or date the two visits they supported. Nor did it explain in detail what their support for those overseas visits involved.

The disclosures follow criticism of Burnham's concern about a possible sale by City's Abu Dhabi owners. Manchester News reported that an independent commission found breaches of Premier League financial rules covering 2009 to 2018, while City maintained its innocence and appealed. The authority's statement did not address that case or Burnham's comments about the owners.