Labour<\/a> peer was after the election to work his contacts within government to the potential advantage of both his company and his then campaign to be chancellor of Oxford University.<\/p>\nJust a few days after the 2024 general election, Mandelson, a Labour peer, sent a WhatsApp message to Spencer Livermore, the financial secretary to the Treasury, in which he asked him for lunch.<\/p>\n
Lord Livermore, a former director of political strategy in Downing Street under Gordon Brown, accepted. Mandelson suggested the meeting be held \u201caway from HMT [the Treasury]\u201d. The exchange suggests a Global Counsel employee was also going to be invited.<\/p>\n
A few days later, Mandelson also emailed Patrick Vallance, the new science minister, after apparently seeing him the previous evening.<\/p>\n
In an email from his Global Counsel address, entitled \u201cEconomic change\u201d, Mandelson provided Vallance with a series of reflections on his own time as a minister.<\/p>\n
Two months later, Mandelson sent Vallance a further email inviting him to attend a panel event on research and innovation that he intended to hold in Oxford in late October or early November.<\/p>\n
Mandelson was running for chancellor of Oxford at the time but he told Vallance that it was not a \u201ccampaign event as such\u201d but \u201cwould be an attempt to stimulate interest in the subject\u201d.<\/p>\n
Vallance responded: \u201cCould we do it after the election of the new chancellor so that it doesn\u2019t get seen as part of that process?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mandelson on 22 July emailed the new trade minister, Douglas Alexander, who served in Tony Blair\u2019s government, introducing him to a Global Counsel employee. That had followed a meeting between Mandelson and Alexander the previous day, a WhatsApp record suggests.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Douglas is now going to try and push trade policy up hill on behalf of our great nation, I really think you two should meet and talk asap. Over to you,\u201d Mandelson emailed.<\/p>\n
Alexander responded: \u201cPeter, thanks for the introduction\u201d. He added, in a direct message to the unnamed Global Counsel employee, that he would \u201cemail you separately to find a slot that suits\u201d.<\/p>\n
A WhatsApp exchange confirmed that the meeting took place. \u201cSeeing [redacted] this afternoon for a proper teach in,\u201d Alexander wrote. \u201cThanks for the introduction\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mandelson chased up: \u201cDid you talk to [redacted] okay?\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexander responded: \u201cYes, thank you. On Wednesday afternoon. It was the single most enlightening conversation I\u2019ve had in the last month on trade so I see why you hold in such high regard. Many thanks again for the introduction\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood,\u201d responded Mandelson. \u201cHappy to help further.\u201d<\/p>\n
In October 2024, Mandelson also emailed Alexander a lecture on a \u201cHigh investment economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
In September that year, Mandelson also emailed Sarah Jones, an industry minister, from his Global Counsel account asking her to confirm that she would be able to attend a roundtable to discuss the government\u2019s \u201cclean energy mission\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am keen to bring together a group of interesting and, hopefully, lively people to discuss this opportunity and challenge,\u201d Mandelson wrote. The minister did not immediately respond.<\/p>\n
A Global Counsel \u201csenior associate\u201d sent four emails chasing up the minister in which they wrote variously that \u201cLord Mandelson has asked me to follow up\u201d and asking whether \u201cshe has had time to consider the invitation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The files are part of a vast tranche of data that MPs voted to release in February relating to Mandelson\u2019s appointment as US ambassador including texts with ministers and senior officials.<\/p>\n
Members of the House of Lords can have financial interests in organisations involved in parliamentary lobbying on behalf of clients but are prohibited from \u201coffering parliamentary advice or services to clients, directly and indirectly\u201d.<\/p>\n
Global Counsel, whose clients have reportedly included TikTok, Palantir and the energy and mining firm Shell amd Anglo American, was founded by Mandelson and his former aide Benjamin Wegg-Prosser in 2010.<\/p>\n
Mandelson resigned as a director of Global Counsel in May 2024 but remained as president until January 2025 when he took up his short-lived role as the UK\u2019s ambassador in Washington.<\/p>\n
The company went into administration in February, following the disclosures about Mandelson\u2019s friendship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Mandelson, as president of his then advisory firm Global Counsel, lobbied hard for ministers to attend his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-616084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}