Andy Burnham has accepted £345,000 in donations... plus Aintree and Glastonbury tickets

Published: 01:10, 19 August 2026 | Updated: 01:11, 19 August 2026 Andy Burnham accepted £345,000 of donations in the past 12 months, it was revealed last night. Prominent Labour donor Lord Sainsbury and party grandee Lord Blunkett are among those who gave cash to the Prime Minister. In his former role as Manchester mayor, Mr Burnham also accepted two tickets worth £3,800 to attend the Brit Awards from Sony Music, two tickets worth £500 to Aintree racecourse and four tickets to last year’s Glastonbury festival. The donations, listed in the most recent version of the MPs’ register of interests, are the first declared by the PM since he was elected as an MP in June. New MPs are required to register all their current financial interests and any registrable benefits they received in the year before their election. Lord Sainsbury gave £164,347 of support, including in the form of ‘office space’ and the cost of contractors working on ‘policy and operations’ for Mr Burnham from June, the filings show. The PM received £2,000 from Lord Blunkett for his Makerfield by-election campaign and £25,000 from businessman Gary Lubner towards his Labour leadership bid. Mr Burnham also received £50,000 from a company run by TV producer Charlie Parsons. ThinkLabour, the think-tank formerly known as Labour Together, gave more than £22,000 in staffing and IT equipment for his office in June, while Ernst And Young provided a secondment to his team worth £16,500 in July. Prominent Labour donor Lord Sainsbury and party grandee Lord Blunkett are among those who gave cash to Andy Burnham Andy Burnham pictured here at the 2026 BRIT Awards when he was Mayor of Greater Manchester, it is still unclear whether he was gifted tickets to this specific event Andy Burnham with Oasis star Noel Gallagher on the same evening  Before the £325,000 of donations made during the Makerfield contest and Labour leadership bid, Mr Burnham received four £5,000 donations from the Fire Brigades Union, its north-west regional office, the Communication Workers Union and Unison, for ‘mayoral’ campaigning.  A Labour Party spokesman said: ‘All declarations have been made in line with parliamentary and Electoral Commission rules.’ It came as it was revealed that Keir Starmer’s decision to sack the top civil servant he hired only 14 months earlier cost taxpayers £500,000. Sir Chris Wormald was ousted as Cabinet Secretary as the then-prime minister rebuilt his No10 team in an attempt to save his premiership. It had initially been suggested that Sir Chris had been handed £260,000 as part of his severance package. But several insiders briefed on the settlement have told the Financial Times that it topped £500,000 – which would make it a record payout. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of throwing Sir Chris ‘under the bus’.