Burnham under fire over ‘cosy’ ties to Man City boss pictured outside No10 for secret talks before ‘sham deals’ verdict

ANDY Burnham is facing mounting questions over his government’s ties to Manchester City’s billionaire owners after it emerged his senior team met with City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak days before the club’s guilty verdicts.

Al Mubarak visited Downing Street on September 14 to meet Business Secretary to discuss the UAE’s investments in Britain.

It’s understood the City supremo asked for the private meeting in his capacity as CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.

Insiders say he was given the treatment, met by one of Burnham’s special advisers, and whisked past security.

It’s understood Al Mubarak and Reynolds discussed current and future UAE investment in Britain and covered topics such as trade, defence and security at the meeting.

Insiders insist there was no mention of the on-going case of financial irregularities into City.

Burnham, 56, had cancelled all meetings that day following the tragic death of his dad, Roy.

Just 11 days later it emerged Man City had been found guilty of breaking a myriad of Premier League rules.

And on September 29, the Premier League confirmed the Citizens had been found guilty of cooking its by more than £900 million through a host of “sham” deals.

Burham now faces tough questions over his government’s handling of the case, especially given the PM’s cosy relationship with City and the UAE.

One of Burnham’s first calls to a foreign leader, within days of becoming Prime Minister, was to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the UAE.

This week it also emerged Al Mubarak carries diplomatic immunity which could complicate any legal action in the aftermath of the Premier League’s case against City.

On Wednesday Burnham was slammed by his own ministers and officials after saying he would be “really concerned to lose” City’s owners.

He also praised the City Group for being “such a huge partner” for modern Manchester despite the claims they’d been used for “sportwashing” by the UAE regime.

He was accused of political interference as sporting bodies decide the fate of the club – found guilty of 100 rule breaches.

On Friday, it also emerged Emirati officials warned Britain that the severity of the ruling could undermine future appetite for grand-scale commitments in the UK.

This comes as The Sun can reveal a tangled web of political and financial ties between Burnham and City’s men back in Manchester.

The PM forged a remarkably cozy relationship with and his leadership team, who ploughed more than £1bn of investment into the regeneration of Manchester while Burnham was mayor.

At the centre of the web is Sir Richard Leese, who ruled Council for a quarter of a century.

In 2014, while still running the council, Leese became a director at Manchester Life Development Company – a flagship urban regeneration firm majority-controlled by Sheikh Mansour, with Greater Manchester Council retaining a minority stake.

When Burnham took office as Greater Manchester Mayor in 2017, he immediately made Leese his Deputy Mayor responsible for business and the economy.

For four years, Leese, 74, sat simultaneously at the summit of local government, Burnham’s regional economic policy team, and the private development vehicle owned by Sheikh Mansour.

Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), a private equity group owned by the Sheikh, invested £1bn to build Manchester Life – a 6,000 home project in East Manchester.

The mega deal was signed in 2014, but a 2022 paper by academics at the University of Sheffield claims the terms were startlingly favourable for Abu Dhabi.

In a report it states the leaseholds for land, property assets, rental and sales income rights, and ultimate control of the joint ventures were all held by entities owned by ADUG, often via companies based in Jersey, which allowed the firms to benefit from negligible tax.

“It looks very much like the city council bent over backwards to get this investment in,” says Nick McGeehan, director of FairSquare, a sports and research group.

Elsewhere, City opened the £200m City Football Academy, an 80-acre development near the stadium in 2014.

City Football Group also developed the Arena in a £365m joint venture with Oakview Music Group.

This Etihad Campus secured planning approval to build a £300m entertainment zone.

Career politician Leese, who is now semi-retired, was awarded the CBE in 2000 before being knighted in 2006 for services to local government.

When he finally stepped down from the Manchester Life board in late 2021, he was immediately granted an Honorary Presidency at Manchester City FC, praised for his role in transforming East Manchester around the Etihad Campus.

Taking his seat on the board was Burnham’s close pal Bev Craig, who had succeeded him as council leader, a seat she retains today.

In January last year, Burnham DJ’d at Craig’s 40th birthday party and in July, when he was made PM, she posted a photo of them together, saying: “It’s good to have friends in high places.”

In 2021 Craig, 41, was swiftly handed the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s senior portfolio for Economy, Business, and International affairs under Burnham.

This meant another senior politician simultaneously occupied three crucial seats: leading the city council, directing Burnham’s economic engine, and sitting on the board of a Sheikh Mansour’s property firm.

None of this points to any obvious wrong-doing.

But the sequence of events shows how deeply Burnham’s team was intertwined with the Abu Dhabi state apparatus.

And while Burnham will point to shiny new inner-city areas and world-class sports facilities, opponents are questioning whether the PM traded away political independence in exchange for foreign cash.

Incredibly, Burnham was more than happy to flaunt the relationship publicly.

He was pictured with Man City Chairman Al Mubarak during the testimonial match in 2019.

They were snapped chatting and laughing together in the directors’ seating area at the Etihad Stadium.

Around the same time, they attended the Gala Dinner to fundraise for Burnham’s A Bed Every Night scheme, raising over £216,000 via tables and supported directly by the club’s leadership.

Today, the Lib Dems called for all meetings and conversations between Burnham and the Abu Dhabi United Group to be published.

The party’s Culture spokesperson Anna Sabine said: “Football fans up and down the country deserve to know that the rules apply to everyone, however rich and powerful they are.

“When the prime minister leaps to the defence of a club’s owners within hours of a verdict, people are entitled to ask what their relationship is.

“Andy Burnham must come clean and publish details of every meeting and conversation he has had with City Football Group, Abu Dhabi United Group or UAE government representatives, going back to his time as mayor – and that includes any hospitality freebies received.”

In June last year Burnham accepted two tickets worth £105 to see Massive Attack at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena which is part owned by the City Football Group (CFG) and sits within the Etihad Complex next to City’s ground.

In November 2024 the then Manchester mayor was given four tickets to see the Courteeners at the stadium worth £440.

Later that month he also received four tickets to the European Music Awards at the Co-op Live.

What isn’t clear is who provided the tickets for Burnham.

An independent commission has found City guilty of a staggering 114 breaches of top-flight financial rules between 2009 and 2018.

The three-person tribunal concluded the club ran a disguised funding scheme using “sham” contracts to pump £900million of owner cash into the club disguised as commercial sponsorship.

Now, tax chiefs are turning up the heat.

The Treasury Committee has written to demanding an urgent probe into whether the club failed to pay millions in UK tax and National by using offshore routes and “sham” consultancy deals – including a £1.75million-a-year arrangement linked to former boss .

City deny all charges, maintain they have irrefutable proof of innocence, and are appealing the verdict.

The Sun contacted Greater Manchester Council for comment.

Downing Street declined to comment.