Andy Burnham speaks out about his involvement with Manchester City
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Andy Burnham claimed Manchester City’s Premier League charges were never mentioned during his dealings with the club’s owners.
The Prime Minister revealed all of his meetings earlier in the week after facing calls to share his links with club officials.
During Prime Minister’s Questions, Burnham was asked whether anyone at the club raised the charges they faced after being found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules last month.
The Prime Minister said: “They did not raise those issues with me.
“I’m very happy, Mr Speaker, for everything to be set out in full.
“It is why I asked the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), in response to a call from the leader of the opposition and others, to set out a full statement of my key dealings with the owners of Manchester City Football Club.
“That statement was published on Monday, and it includes the issues in the news today. And that is the position.”
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who previously called on Burnham to release the meetings when speaking to GB News, later accused the Prime Minister of “bumbling into a row still ongoing about Manchester City”.
She said: “I don’t think his carefully worded answer to (Mr Mayhew, the MP who asked the question) is going to suffice. It doesn’t sound like that one’s going away.
“Does he ever get tired of putting his foot in his mouth?”
Details dealing with the Citizens were published on Monday, with a GMCA spokesman saying: “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.
“In his capacity as mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Burnham has been accused of covering up his links to City after a new probe showed he joined City’s chairman twice in a luxury hospitality suite at the Etihad Stadium in a deleted register of interests.
The investigation has suggested Mr Burnham accepted City-funded freebies worth almost £1,200.
Details of the freebies were logged in a register he signed on December 7, 2020; however, the GMCA removed the register from its website.
Downing Street has sought to downplay the findings, with Mr Burnham’s press secretary pointing to a passage in the statement that said: “He was a guest of Manchester City at home matches on a small number of occasions.
“The PM’s attendance and the hospitality he received at them was declared in the usual way.”
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