Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will release details of his meetings with senior figures at Manchester City. He made the commitment after Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, demanded that No 10 publish all details of the prime minister’s meetings with the club’s senior figures.
The pledge follows criticism of Burnham’s comments after an independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.
The commission found that City had broken the rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018. It concluded that the club created “sham” contracts with commercial partners to secretly funnel more than £830m into their football operations.
Burnham’s previous role as mayor of Greater Manchester has raised questions about his relationship with City’s Abu Dhabi ownership. Speaking on the Rest is Politics podcast, he said: “I’ve been asked by the leader of the opposition to publish details of my meetings, which I’m happy to do and I’m going to.”
He added: “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.”
Burnham initially said he would be “really concerned” if City’s owners decided to sell the club following the guilty verdict. He later denied that his reaction had “downplayed the seriousness of the findings”.
Some Premier League clubs were “astonished” by Burnham’s stance, according to sources who said they were “concerned” about political interference in the appeal process.
Sanctions have yet to be announced, and City have lodged an appeal against the verdict. The club returned to action for the first time since the verdict on Sunday, when it won 3-0 at Liverpool.
Burnham defends comments on Man City
Burnham served as mayor of Manchester from 2017 until earlier this year, a period that coincided with a sustained spell of success for City. As mayor, he championed investment from the Gulf as a way to grow Manchester’s economy. The city’s leaders had pursued that strategy before Burnham became the inaugural elected mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Burnham insisted that he had not misspoken. “I don’t think I misspoke,” he said. “What I would say is my mind hadn’t been on all of the issues. My mind had been on Labour Party conference and I was doing interviews in relation to it.”
He also rejected the link that interviewers drew between the two issues. “And also, I didn’t link those two things. You know, the questions linked those two things. What I would say is they’re very separate,” he said. “The football issues are different from the investment issues. People will try and conflate those two things, but they shouldn’t, in my view.”
Burnham maintained his position on the verdict itself. “The football issues, the findings of the independent commission are serious, as I said in the interview.”
The independent process
The process involving the charges against Manchester City is independent of the Premier League. An independent commission held a 42-day hearing in 2024, which led to the verdict announced last month. City were found guilty of all charges except one, which related to non-cooperation with the Premier League investigation.
The commission’s report stated that “a number of important club witnesses gave false evidence in key respects and that some knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence”. A separate independent appeal board will hear City’s appeal. The club continues to deny any wrongdoing.