Andy Burnham’s dirty political secret

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

This is a Global Production.

Lucy Powell (0:04)

Manchester City fan, myself, like me, he is blue in football, but true red in his politics.

And look, while we're on football, can I just say to all those United fans who've been gloating all week, you're still crap and you know you are. Anyway.

Lewis Goodall (0:27)

That is Lucy Powell, Education Secretary and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, closing the party conference in Liverpool today and making light of a financial scandal, the likes of which Britain has never seen before in Manchester, where Manchester City are in deep trouble. That might be unwise in itself, but Lucy Powell has done something else in drawing a connection between Andy Burnham and Manchester City. Not about the scandal itself, but that they represent what in some ways is Andy Burnham's dirty political secret. His success in Manchester wasn't about control. It was about foreign money. Welcome to The News Agents.

It's Jon. It's Lewis. And Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, as we say, making light for a bit of a cheap gag about what is actually, seems to be one of the most serious corruption scandals, certainly in English football, but given that English football is such huge business, it might seem a little ill-advised, particularly when you know the details. Yesterday, the Premier League confirmed that an independent commission had found that Manchester City was guilty of serious financial rule breaches covering nine seasons over the course of a decade up to 2018, and most charges are failing even to cooperate with their investigation. City used sham commercial contracts to inflate revenues and the state costs by more than 900 million pounds, circumventing football's spending rules. Lord Cruddice, whose company sponsors Everton, and the former city chairman David Bernstein, are calling for scrutiny beyond football, indeed calling for an investigation potentially into potential criminal charges. Now, this isn't just, I wouldn't be talking about this, if this was obviously just a football story.

There are about 3 billion people on Earth. No, actually, wait, 7 billion people on Earth who are better qualified than me to do that. But the point is, is that obviously, football is so political, not least for two reasons. One, that Manchester City is basically owned by the UAE, by Abu Dhabi, by the state. That is why they've become so successful, they've funneled so much money in. Also, there is a deeply political angle involving our own Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, because he has been a champion of the UAE and their ownership, because they have brought so much money and investment into East Manchester and the area around the club. And this is why we're discussing this on The News Agents today, because this is about geopolitics, it's about economics, it's about the power of a nation and not just about a football club, as you've just said, Lewis. Because here you have Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister of our country, fanatical Everton supporter, which has just been kind of punished by the Premier League for minor indiscretions compared to what we're talking about now.

And the possibility that the UAE could use its muscle to say to the British government, for God's sake, intervene, because, you know, we invest a huge amount in this country. If you don't help us here, if you don't make some of these charges go away, we could withdraw an awful lot of our investment. And what does Andy Burnham do there? It really does go into politics very fast, the moment you start looking at this in detail. And the aspects of it kind of, you know, the possibility that there is a criminal element to this, even adds to the urgency that goes beyond whether Manchester City face a points deduction. It is how Andy Burnham navigates this. When, if you listen to his speech yesterday, it was all about how the big guys, the shareholders always win, and the customers always lose out, and we've got to rebalance the books.

And he's going to face a question soon. Am I going to stand up to the owners of Manchester City, if it looks like the Premier League is going to throw the book at them? And while Andy Burnham was the mayor of Greater Manchester, as I say, he is someone who championed the club, for political reasons, we can talk about the reasons for that. But here he is just to give a flavor of that, talking to Podsave the UK.

Jon Sopel (4:56)

And the impact that the Abu Dhabi ownership is having on the wider city, the city council selling swathes of land to the club's owners, is it something that concerns you?