Burnham had two dinners with Man City chairman, records show

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 14 Oct, 14:44 · Archive

Andy Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Manchester City's chairman while serving as mayor of Greater Manchester.

Andy Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak in 2017 and 2018 while serving as mayor of Greater Manchester, it has emerged. These meetings were not included in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority's statement released on Monday about Burnham's dealings with the club, though the statement did say he was a guest of Manchester City at home matches 'on a small number of occasions'.

The dinners were recorded in a register of declarations on the GMCA website, which has since been deleted. When pressed on why the initial statement omitted the dinners, Burnham's press secretary pointed to the passage referring to hospitality at matches and said the PM's attendance and hospitality 'was declared in the usual way'. The press secretary declined to explain why the entries were deleted from the website, saying that was a matter for the authority.

Burnham has faced questions over his ties to Manchester City since the club was found guilty of systematically breaking Premier League rules. The Prime Minister previously sparked controversy by saying he would be 'really concerned' if the club's owners sold up. Shadow sports minister Louie French has called on Burnham to 'come clean' about his connections, warning he 'cannot hide behind the GMCA'. Burnham has told MPs that all his dealings with the club's Abu Dhabi owners would be published.

How it is being reported

• Burnham told to ‘come clean’ as deleted records show he had two dinners with Man City chairmanThe prime minister is facing questions over his ties to the scandal-hit clubThe Independent · 14 Oct, 14:24
• Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Man City chairman, deleted records showThe prime minister has been under growing pressure since the club was found guilty of Premier League rule breaches.BBC Politics · 14 Oct, 11:06

In this story: Andy Burnham · Khaldoon Al Mubarak · Manchester City · Greater Manchester · Louie French

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