GMP meets the Serious Fraud Office about the University of Greater Manchester

Dear readers — languid summer days are a myth at Mill towers; this has been one of the busiest seasons we can remember. While we know a lot of our readers are jetting off on holiday, every time we try to nip out for a few hours in the sun, a new update or tip rolls in. 

Today, we’ve got the latest developments on stories exclusively broken by this paper, including a sit down between Greater Manchester Police and the Serious Fraud Office as the investigation into the University of Greater Manchester continues. Plus, the former home of Sammy’s Bar gets a new look.

He ran a popular Manchester bar. Three women say he assaulted them

The owner of Sammy’s Bar is accused of ‘taking advantage of vulnerable women’

The MillMollie Simpson

But first, your briefing.

Mill readers vote for local banking

Last Monday we asked readers some short questions about their banking. 6 in 10 of you told us it mattered that money saved in Greater Manchester was used to support the local community:

And over half of you told us you wanted to be able to go to a physical branch to get advice:

There's good news: Manchester Building Society will be opening its first branch later this year in the heart of Manchester. They'll be investing in the local community and working to expand their branch network right across Greater Manchester. To stay up to date, see here.

This post was sponsored by Manchester Building Society.

Catch up and coming up

• Last week members got Jack Walton’s dispatch from the far-right demonstration led through the city centre. He found a crowd that was a blend of backgrounds, not all fitting the usual far-right caricature.
• We also had Andy Spinoza — author of Manchester Unspun — delving into the creation of Daphne Moon, the lone Mancunian character in the hit sit-com Frasier. 
• And on the weekend, David Barnett told the story of Andrea Ashworth, an author who wrote a classic of Mancunian literature called Once in a House on Fire, then fell off the map.
• On Wednesday, we have freelancer Lucy Warm on Diesel Dyke Club and the lack of lesbian spaces in Manchester. 
• And on Thursday, we’re teaming up with the Business Desk to get inside the ensuing collapse of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

☀️ This week’s weather

Tuesday ☀️ Hot and dry with lots of sunshine. 30°C. 

Wednesday 🌤️ Hot with sunny spells. Isolated heavy showers later in the afternoon. 30°C.

Thursday 🌦️ Warm with sunny spells and a few showers. Breezy. 25°C.

Friday 🌤️ Very warm with sunny spells and the odd shower. 27°C.

Weekend 🌤️ Dry, warm and sunny. Temperatures in the high twenties.

We get our weekly forecast from Manchester Weather.

Your briefing

👮‍♂️ Greater Manchester Police’s investigation into fraud and bribery at the University of Greater Manchester ploughs on. We’ve been hearing that a senior investigating officer on the force’s major incidents team sat down with the Serious Fraud Office last week to discuss whether the case might be complex and wide-ranging enough to warrant being handed over to a larger law enforcement body. A well-placed source in Greater Manchester’s political scene told us the investigation is highly complex and has multiple lines of inquiry abroad. However, it seems for now at least, the case is remaining in-house. On Friday, a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police told us the case hasn’t moved over.

In further University of Greater Manchester news: Two months ago, we received a letter accusing the university’s leadership of various types of corrupt practices, claims that we have not verified. The letter was sent from three anonymous academics and was addressed to our office, the Office for Students, PwC and the MP Phil Brickell, and said that “if the matter isn’t fixed positively in 14 days, multiple recordings and email chains will be shared with the Manchester Mill”. It has now been well over 14 days, and no audio recordings or email chains have been forthcoming. Even worse, our efforts to discover the identities of these anonymous academics have all failed. Was this a case of people bluffing or could there be more to the claims in the letter? Either way, we’d like to know more. If you know anything, please get in touch.

🗳️ Rumours are swirling (again) about whether Andy Burnham is planning to make a return to Westminster. Keir Starmer’s spiralling popularity (currently at 27%, according to YouGov) is giving this current round of speculation more credibility. Meanwhile, Burnham has topped recent LabourList and Ipsos polls as the favourite to be Starmer’s replacement. Kieran Pedley, director of politics at Ipsos, told the i paper “he’s a fairly high-profile, well-known figure. There is clearly a degree of warmth towards Andy Burnham in the public. The question is obviously, how practical is it realistically for him to then end up in Parliament.” 

Guido Fawkes may have some insight into that. It reported last week that Andrew Gwynne — kicked out of the Labour party for comments he made about local residents in a Whatsapp group now famously known as “Trigger-Me-Timbers” — wants out of his parliamentary seat in Gorton and Denton, which Burnham could have. Gwynne and Burnham are close, with Gwynne having managed Burnham's mayoral campaign in 2016. In that scenario there would be a byelection and another mayoral election. But Burnham’s successor is less clear now that Sacha Lord, Burnham’s former advisor and once a favourite for the mayoralty, has a £400,000 Covid grant scandal in his history (Mills passim). 

⚡ Elon Musk has applied to become a UK electricity supplier via his Manchester-based subsidiary Tesla Energy Ventures. The company’s base on Ashton New Road, just by the Etihad, originally sparked rumours that Musk would be opening a car factory, likely on the proposed Atom Valley site in the north of the city region. But in the end Tesla opted for Berlin. If the electricity supply application is successful, Musk’s company could be providing electricity to England, Scotland and Wales by next year.

💼 Would you relish the challenge of bringing our unique journalism to a wider audience? We're looking for a head of growth to work with us and our sister titles across the UK to get more people reading us. You need to have a keen focus on growth and the creativity to try lots of different approaches. Deadline to apply is 3rd September. More here.

Quick hits

🪧The Times has told the story of Palestine Action, the proscribed activist group formed by Huda Ammori, born in Bolton, and fellow Extinction Rebellion member Richard Barnard in 2020. The group’s early demonstrations focussed on facilities owned by Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms company. They got one of its factories in Oldham shut down following months of protests. More recently, the group broke into RAF Brize Norton and spray painted refuelling jets. Afterwards it was proscribed under anti-terrorism laws.

🍸 26 Swan Street, the former home of the controversial cocktail bar Sammy’s, has a new look. The garish yellow exterior and yellow curtains are now all white, and the graffiti accusing the bar’s former owner of being a “rapist, predator, abuser” has been washed from the windows.

⚽ ICYMI: In last week’s briefing we covered the troubles over at Manchester United, where the club is trying to buy a freight depot as part of its regeneration plans. The problem is it can’t agree a price with the owner, the Guardian revealed. By the end of the week, Andy Burnham said the paper jumped the gun on the story and there is still much to be done. “I think everyone should file that one away as a bit of a summer story,” he told BBC Radio Manchester, reiterating that compulsory purchase powers could be used to make it happen. “There is plenty that can be done if agreements can’t be reached. But there is a lot to play out here.”

🫵 Companies are getting better — or depending on your perspective, worse — at ads targeting Mancunians. See: the recent “Manny-made” collaboration with burger chain Archie’s and local rapper Aitch. The latest to run the gauntlet of public opinion (i.e. on the r/Manchester subreddit) is Hooch, which claims in a billboard to have been “there when Ancoats had Sankeys, not sourdough”. The Mill office is split on whether these ads make us cringe or reach for our wallets, but we’re open as ever to being swayed by our readers in the comments, so drop your takes.

Home of the week

This Northern Quarter apartment is all limewashed quiet luxury. If you’re looking for a two-bed that also looks like a tasteful Greek restaurant, this one could be yours for £350,000.

Our favourite reads

We Sent a Writer to Work Behind the Bar at the Big Oasis Show Last Night — VICE

A VICE reporter goes undercover at an Oasis gig in Heaton Park, wrestling with a beer keg while being serenaded by Champagne Supernova. “The next few hours, I spent eavesdropping, learning a lot about the fantasies and anxieties of those in attendance at Heaton Park and the world more generally. One woman worried that her autistic son might feed their hedgehog too much chocolate. A Glaswegian bloke who said he would never dream of drinking the ‘pish’ coming from our machines asked us to find a proper tap to pull him a pint. A man with a face like the surface of Mars demanded a bottle of blue wine. What do you mean? The purple wine, he clarified. I eventually deciphered that he meant the red.”

‘We are diverse cultures come together’: the vision of harmony behind Manchester’s Caribbean carnival — The Guardian

The Guardian traces the origins of the annual Caribbean Carnival in Alexandra Park, when a group of émigrés from the Leeward Islands threw a party and led a procession down Princess Street with a steel drum band. Locita Brandy, now 90, was among the founding group and wanted to stage the event to brighten up the year. Her son, Keithly Brandy, who grew up attending the earliest iterations of the carnival, believes her contribution to Manchester has been “overlooked”. “It’s been an uphill struggle to get mum’s legacy recognised,” he said.

Tommy Fury: £10 million Love Island star who almost lost it all — The Times

Tommy Fury sits down with a reporter at the Moss Side Amateur Boxing Club to chat about what it’s like to hit the tabloids while dealing with losing your family and recovering from a drinking problem. “Boxing gave me this identity as a superman, an alpha male, and when I couldn’t do that any more, I didn’t feel like I was an alpha male. I didn’t feel like I was The Man — everything went with it.”

Our to do list

Tuesday

🍊 ANEW Way to Peel an Orange is a new exhibition at Castlefield Gallery, featuring artwork made by residents at a recovery centre for those suffering from substance abuse. 

Wednesday

📚 always already is a queer reading group that meets at P3 Annihilation Eve on Oldham Road every month. This Wednesday, they’re discussing “feminism’s dalliances with fascist/reactionary structures”. More here.

🎸 NIAMOS in Hulme hosts a free weekly jam where musicians are invited to come on stage and play any music of their choice, whether it’s Afrobeat, reggae, punk poetry or jazz. More here.

Thursday

🚣 A new exhibition at Salford Museum and Art Gallery explores how the Irwell went from being one of the filthiest rivers in the world to an essential wildlife corridor. It’s showing for three more weeks.

📸 Ukrainian sports photographer Serge Shcherbyna showcases a new body of work at Aviva Studios, exploring matchday rituals and traditions in European football. More here.

Got a To-Do that you’d like us to list? Tell us about it here.