Official records showing over £1,000 in gifts and stadium dining perks provided to Mayor Andy Burnham have been removed from a public regional website.
Exclusive stadium dinners and concert tickets worth £1,187 were provided to Andy Burnham by Manchester City Football Club during his first term as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
Records erased from public authority website
A register of interests covering Burnham’s second mayoral term between 2021 and 2024 remains accessible online. Details detailing the perks received during his first mayoral term from 2017 to 2021 are no longer available on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority website.
The removed records disclose two luxury matchday dinners shared with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
Hospitality total included high value dining
The first dinner occurred in August 2017 when Manchester City played Everton, the football club Burnham holds a season ticket for. Former deputy mayor Sir Richard Leese was recorded alongside Burnham on that occasion.
While the match ticket was listed at £35, the associated hospitality reached £300, bringing the total cost for that visit to £335.
A second dinner took place during the Manchester derby in April 2018 and was valued at approximately £699. No other local leaders were named for that second fixture.
- August 2017: Match ticket costing £35 with £300 in hospitality, totaling £335
- April 2018: Derby match dinner valued at approximately £699
- May 2018: Two Ed Sheeran concert tickets worth £150
- Total perks: Hospitality gifts totaling £1,187
Authority clarifies details of club meetings
Addressing the stadium visits, a spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority issued an official statement.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions.”
The authority noted that Burnham attended Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the chairman informally in the stands.
Addressing previous working relationships with the club on The Rest Is Politics podcast, a statement set out the position on historical contacts.
“I will quite clearly put out there everything that I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester. None of it is recent, actually, in terms of the meetings I had. I only had one significant meeting, actually, and that was in 2021.”
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority confirmed the specifics of that 2021 encounter.
“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.”