Burnham is accused of misleading Parliament as 'manual trawl' ordered over deleted Man City dinner records

Tory sports spokesman Louie French has called on Burnham to return to the Commons and apologise, after the Prime Minister acknowledged that records of two hospitality dinners with Man City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak had been removed from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority website. On Monday, Burnham told MPs that all his Man City dealings would appear online that afternoon, but the subsequent GMCA statement made no mention of the dinners, which had a combined value of £1,000. He has since announced a fresh 'manual trawl' of all gifts and hospitality records spanning his decade as Mayor.

Burnham maintained that the 2017 and 2018 dinners were 'included' in Monday's statement, attributing the omission to how the GMCA had put it together.

French said: 'He isn't the Mayor of Manchester now, he's the Prime Minister — he cannot blame the GMCA for that fact.'

Burnham had previously said he would be 'really concerned' to lose Man City's Abu Dhabi owners after the club was convicted of more than 100 Premier League financial breaches.