Published: | Updated:
There were more than 30 million reasons why Andy Burnham had to be on top of his game as he trotted up the front steps of Trafford's imposing Victorian town hall shortly before 10.30am on Friday, September 29, 2017.
asserted
he → publish → Friday
He was about to chair a monthly meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).
asserted
He → chair → Authority
Specifically, the body, whose voting members consisted almost entirely of Labour councillors, was due to decide whether to give £31.2million in taxpayer-funded loans to a pair of property companies named New Little Mill and Vesta Street.
asserted
members → vote → companies
As the mayor was doubtless aware, each of the firms was owned, via the tax haven of Jersey, by Sheik Mansour Bin Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nehayan, the stratospherically wealthy Emirati politician whose other financial assets included Manchester City football club.
asserted
assets → own → club
They were hoping to use the cash injection to build upmarket yuppie flats in Ancoats, a canalside neighbourhood of former cotton mills and warehouses just north of the city centre.
asserted
They → hop → centre
It's unclear why one of the world's richest men, whose net worth has been estimated at up to £30billion (almost a thousand times the loan amount) needed public money to fund this speculative housing development.
uncertain
worth → estimate → development
Prime Minister Andy Burnham with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak in 2019
Manchester City owner Sheik Mansour Bin Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nehayan holds the Premier League trophy with Al Mubarak
For now, you need only to know that at the time of this highly important meeting, Andy Burnham and the men from Abu Dhabi were on very friendly terms, indeed.
asserted
Burnham → hold → terms
On August 21 that year, the then-mayor of Manchester had, after all, accepted a free ticket to City's Etihad Stadium from Sheik Mansour's club chairman and close business associate, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, to watch his beloved Everton play in the Premier League.
asserted
Everton → accept → League
The duo had eaten dinner together, in an executive box before adjourning to padded, light-blue seats to enjoy a keenly contested 1-1 draw.
asserted
duo → eat → draw
A mere six weeks after accepting the £330 freebie, Mayor Burnham found himself scheduled to chair the discussion over whether taxpayers' cash ought to be loaned to his host's property firms.
asserted
cash → accept → firms
Was this whopping conflict of interest declared at the September 29 meeting?
asserted
conflict → declare → meeting
In fact, minutes of proceedings show that, with Burnham in the chair, the GMCA 'resolved' to hand the Emirati-backed firms, New Little Mill and Vesta Street, a cool £10.5million and £20.7million respectively.
asserted
GMCA → show → 10.5million
A month later, the Labour mayor chaired another combined authority meeting, this time at Manchester's Lowry Theatre.
asserted
mayor → chair → Theatre
On this occasion, it was agreed to loan a further £24.5million to Lampwick Developments Limited, a third company that listed Sheik Mansour as its ultimate beneficial owner.
asserted
that → agree → owner
The following spring came another chummy meeting between the mayor and the city's Abu Dhabi benefactors: this time Burnham and Al Mubarak dined together in an executive box prior to the Manchester derby.
asserted
Burnham → come → derby
Ancoats is one of the areas in Manchester which has seen a regeneration development
Then, a month after that £700 freebie, the Emirati came good for a third time, with two free tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert at the stadium, worth £150.
asserted
Emirati → see → stadium
But that's how things got done in Andy Burnham's Manchester, a one-party town where getting ahead in the property game was as much about who you knew as what you knew.
asserted
you → do → what
Today, some nine years later, the chickens from this rum series of events are finally coming home to roost.
asserted
chickens → come → events
With Burnham now in Downing Street, the nuts and bolts of his chummy and mutually beneficial relationship with both Manchester City and its Middle Eastern owner are at last making headline news.
asserted
nuts → make → news
Behind this development lies a pressing fact: the sporting institution our Labour PM was once so close to is now at the centre of a spectacularly grubby controversy, having been found guilty last month of 'systematically' and cynically breaking Premier League rules.
Even by the immoral standards of professional football, the scale of Man City's alleged cheating is unprecedented.
asserted
scale → lie → cheating
An independent commission has concluded that it broke financial rules 114 times, over a nine-year period, from 2009 to 2018, when it won three league titles, dishonestly using 'sham' contracts to secretly funnel £830million into footballing operations.
asserted
it → conclude → operations
Sanctions are yet to be announced, and City, which has denied wrongdoing, is simultaneously pledging to appeal while refusing to discuss details of its apparent misdemeanours, which first emerged via computer files that leaked in 2018.
asserted
that → announce → 2018
Former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola meets Sheik Mansour and Al Mubarak at the Presidential Affairs Office in Abu Dhabi in 2018
As for Andy Burnham, his response has been a masterclass in political ineptitude, elevating what was previously a footballing controversy into the growing stench of a political scandal.
asserted
what → meet → scandal
The Prime Minister's first foot-in-mouth moment came hours after news of the independent findings broke, on September 25.
In two interviews, he chose neither to condemn the club, nor to give a statesmanlike refusal to comment but, instead, gave two ill-advised TV interviews where he effectively parroted Man City's house PR line, to the effect that it shouldn't yet be regarded as guilty.
asserted
it → come → effect
An initial chat with Granada saw the Prime Minister push back on suggestions that the club should be punished via demotion from the Premier League, saying 'people shouldn't jump to those kinds of conclusions' and describing the whole thing as 'quite a contested process'.
asserted
people → see → process
A second, to the BBC, saw him declare it 'frustrating when people rush to judgment' (an odd way to describe a forensic investigation that had taken some eight years) before adding that he hoped City's owners didn't sell the club.
asserted
owners → see → club
'I would be really concerned to lose them,' said Burnham.
asserted
Burnham → lose → them
Among those who thought his remarks smacked of partisanship was City fan Liam Gallagher, who (perhaps unhelpfully) welcomed the PM's comments, posting on X: 'There's only 1 ANDY BURNHAM.
asserted
who → think → X
I told ya.
asserted
I → tell → ya
Sheik Mansour's property firm was given a ten-year 'right of first refusal' to swathes of land the council was planning to sell between the Etihad Stadium and the city centre
Questions over Burnham's links to Abu Dhabi duly began to mount, amid news that Al Mubarak had visited Downing Street on September 14, barely a fortnight before news of the findings against Man City broke.
asserted
news → give → City
The Emirati was given red-carpet treatment during the visit, when he was met by one of Burnham's special advisers and whisked past security before sitting down for a chat with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
asserted
he → give → Reynolds
A scheduled audience with Burnham, which had been in the PM's diary for some time, was only cancelled at the last minute because of the fact that his father, Roy, had died that day.
asserted
father → cancel → fact
It also emerged that in July, a few days after taking office, Burnham had spoken by phone with Abu Dhabi's absolute monarch, Crown Prince Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of Sheik Mansour.
asserted
Burnham → emerge → Mansour
According to the official record of their conversation, the Prime Minister 'began by thanking His Highness for his country's investment into Manchester and the incredible impact it has had on the city'.
uncertain
it → accord → city
That 'investment' is now firmly under the spotlight, amid extraordinary revelations about the various alleged 'sweetheart' deals that Sheik Mansour's property firms had negotiated with Manchester's city council.
asserted
firms → allege → council
A particularly remarkable example, which seems entirely at odds with normal public procurement practices, saw the Emirati investor given a ten-year 'right of first refusal' to swathes of land the council was planning to sell between the Etihad Stadium and the city centre.
asserted
council → seem → Stadium
An array of valuable real estate was duly sold to his firms without first being offered to the market via a transparent tendering process.
asserted
array → sell → process
Planning applications on the land were rushed through, while rules that usually require developers to make 20 per cent of their properties 'affordable' were torn up.
asserted
cent → rush → properties
Manchester council has said these measures were needed to encourage investment in a deprived part of the city, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash.
asserted
measures → say → crash
But that view is not universally shared.
asserted
view → share → ?
…and 40 more, not listed.
The Aporia
