The facts
Andy Burnham, in his former role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, according to deleted records seen by the BBC. These events, valued at £300 in August 2017 and approximately £699 in April 2018, were for matches at the Etihad Stadium. This information was not included in a statement released by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on Monday, which detailed Burnham's meetings with the club. The GMCA statement specified a formal meeting with Al Mubarak in October 2021 and an informal meeting at a 2019 testimonial match, along with occasional hospitality as a guest of Manchester City at home games. Burnham had previously declared these two dinners, along with tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert in May 2018. The register of declarations has since been removed from the GMCA website, with the authority stating it is their policy to only publish entries from the current mayoral term. Downing Street defended the dinners, characterizing them as hospitality received at home games that had been declared. Political pressure is mounting on Burnham to be more transparent about his past discussions with Manchester City, particularly after the club was found guilty of breaching Premier League financial regulations.
Our take
Andy ‘The Deletion’ Burnham, the political equivalent of a man caught with his hand in the biscuit tin who then throws the whole tin in the fucking river, is at it again. The Mayor of Greater Manchester, facing pressure to explain his cosy chats with a club found guilty of financial bullshit, decided the best transparency was to wipe the slate clean. Or, more accurately, wipe the register. Two hospitality dinners with City’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, worth nearly a grand, simply vanished from public view. Not a good look, you greasy prick.
Let’s marvel at the arithmetic of this grift. A £300 dinner in 2017 and a £699 scoff in 2018. That’s £999 of free grub and football, you tight-fisted bastard. Couldn’t even crack a grand for the optics. For that price, you’d hope the mayor was at least getting a decent steak and a view of Pep’s bald head, not just some warm pie and a lesson in creative accounting.
His office’s excuse is a masterpiece of bureaucratic cowardice. Oh, we only publish entries from the *current* term! Right. So the official policy is ‘out of sight, out of mind’, a perfect motto for any public servant who enjoys a free lunch with controversial billionaires. They even had the stones to list ‘occasional hospitality’ in their statement, which is like a bank robber admitting to ‘occasional withdrawals’. The specific, deleted evidence shows two very fucking specific dinners, you absolute clowns.
And let’s not forget Downing Street’s pathetic defence, characterising this as mere ‘hospitality received at home games’. Yeah, that’s the point, you spineless cunts. The public might want to know why their mayor is getting wined and dined by a sporting entity currently appealing a guilty verdict for financial breaches. It’s not a fucking season ticket raffle; it’s a conflict of interest served on a silver platter.
Burnham, who also declared tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert (because nothing says ‘man of the people’ like free seats to a ginger crooner), is now under pressure to come clean. Too late, mate. The only thing you’ve clarified is that your idea of public record-keeping belongs in the same bin as City’s old accounting spreadsheets. A deleted register is a confession written in invisible ink. You’re not a public servant; you’re a fucking magician, making inconvenient truths disappear.
