Andy Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Man City chairman, deleted records show

Andy Burnham shared two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak while serving as mayor of Greater Manchester, it has emerged. The information was not included in Monday's statement from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and it adds to the scrutiny facing the British prime minister since the club was found guilty of systematically breaking Premier League financial rules.

• Burnham dined with Al Mubarak at two Etihad Stadium matches, in 2017 and 2018.
• A GMCA declarations register that detailed both dinners was removed from the authority's website.
• Monday's statement mentioned a 2021 formal meeting and an informal 2019 encounter, but not the two dinners.
• Opposition figures are demanding that Downing Street release all contacts between the prime minister and the club.
• Manchester City was found guilty in September of breaching financial regulations between 2009 and 2018 and has appealed the verdict.

What the deleted records say about the Etihad dinners

A previous GMCA register of declarations seen by the BBC recorded a dinner with then Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese and the chair of Man City around the Everton match at the Etihad Stadium in August 2017. That hospitality was valued at £300. The same document included another entry for dinner with the chairman at the Manchester derby in April 2018, valued at approximately £699.

Burnham declared both dinners at the time, along with a £150 pair of tickets to see Ed Sheeran perform at the stadium in May 2018. Yet the register has disappeared from the GMCA website. The BBC understands it is authority policy to publish only entries from the current mayoral term, a stance that raises questions because the website retains entries dating back to 2022 even though the current term began in 2024.

Why Burnham's comments on a club sale caused a backlash

The controversy erupted last month, when Burnham said he would be "really concerned" if Manchester City's current owners decided to sell the club. The remarks, made shortly after the guilty verdict was announced, were widely interpreted as an inappropriate intervention in football by several political figures.

Andy Burnham promised the country and House of Commons full transparency on his dealings with Manchester City. This was essential after his inappropriate intervention into football.

The quote is from Louie French, the Conservative shadow sports minister, one of several leading politicians demanding answers. Reform UK's Robert Jenrick went further, saying "this saga stinks" and accusing Burnham of apparently having "concealed his extensive links to Man City's owners".

Downing Street's response and the PM's version

Downing Street has defended the two dinners with Manchester City's chairman, describing them as hospitality received at home games that had been properly declared, rather than separate meetings with the club's chairman. The government maintains there was no irregularity, but calls for clarity about any previous conversations with City executives continue to grow.

Burnham told The Rest Is Politics podcast last week that he was "happy" to set out everything he had done with the club while mayor. He said he only had one significant meeting, in 2021. Asked at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday whether anyone at the club had raised the charges with him or his team, he replied: "They did not raise those issues with me."

The prime minister's office described the GMCA statement as "a full statement of my key dealings with the owners of Manchester City Football Club". But when reporters asked why the document did not mention the two dinners and what the difference was between "everything" and "key dealings", the press secretary referred back to the authority's statement.

Manchester City's financial rule breaches and appeal

Manchester City, the dominant force in English football for years, was found guilty in September by an independent commission of breaching Premier League financial regulations. The commission concluded the club had broken rules over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018 by creating "sham" contracts with commercial partners to secretly channel more than £830m into their football operations.

Sanctions have not yet been announced, and City, which denies any wrongdoing, has lodged an appeal against the verdict. The case has reignited debate over the relationship between public institutions and the club's owners, who are linked to the royal family of the United Arab Emirates.

The council deal with City's owners under renewed scrutiny

Earlier this month, Richard Leese, who led Manchester City Council for 25 years until 2021, defended a decade-old agreement between the council and Abu Dhabi United Group, the company that owns Manchester City. According to a University of Sheffield report, the partnership leased land to ADUG at "below comparable rates".

The ties between local government and the club's owners have been under the spotlight since the verdict. For Burnham's critics, the dinners with Al Mubarak and their omission from the official statement are part of a broader pattern of opacity.

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