Global Counsel, the lobbying firm founded by Lord Mandelson, has entered administration.
Staff were told the business is no longer a going concern after a string of high-profile clients pulled their business after revelations in the Epstein files. Mandelson has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing.
Mandelson with Jeffrey Epstein in St Barts in 2005
Mandelson left Global Counsel’s board in 2024 after being named as Britain’s ambassador to Washington, and agreed to sell his stake in the company. He set it up after leaving government in 2010.
• Peter Mandelson got five-figure payoff for sacking as ambassador
One senior figure at the company said: “It is horrible that staff now risk losing their jobs through absolutely no fault of their own.”
An email to staff from Rebecca Park, Global Counsel’s chief executive, said: “Over the past fortnight I and the leadership team … have made every effort to find a solution to this crisis that would protect as many jobs as possible and allow GC to move on with confidence…
“We were encouraged by a unanimous view in the market about the quality of GC’s people and the work we do. We received several substantial expressions of interest which we pursued in good faith. But despite the ongoing support of so many clients, and the unflinching resilience of the GC team, the damage caused by Peter Mandelson’s legacy, both in loss of clients and reputationally, proved to be too much.
“This has proved to be a terrible time for all of us. We have had to endure seeing everything we have built together brought down by the inexcusable actions of others. In the long term I am confident that the people of GC I have come to admire so much will all go on to better things. But in the short term the consequences will be painful for all of you, and for that I am deeply sorry. But I hope with time that you will share the same sense of pride I have for every member of this team.”
By placing the company into administration staff — many of whom joined after Mandelson left — will be freed from any non-compete covenants in their employment contracts and will be able to start new jobs straight away.
The company had lost contracts with Barclays, Tesco, Phoenix Group, the insurance company, and Klarna, the buy now, pay later platform. Vodafone had put its deal with Global Counsel under review.
Last week ministers and civil servants were told to report any conversations with the company to managers. A memo from a senior civil servant said: “Any engagement with Global Counsel is now viewed as sensitive, any engagement should now be treated as non-routine, and escalated.”
Ben Wegg-Prosser, who founded the company with Mandelson, had stood down as chief executive in an attempt to save the business.