A consulting firm founded by Peter Mandelson handed back £1.3m to the House of Lords peer prior to his departure from the business, the firm’s latest accounts reveal.
Global Counsel, a London-based public policy consultancy launched by Mandelson in 2016, had been lent £1m by the disgraced politician with interest paid “at commercial rates,” white a further £300,000 was owed to Willbury Limited, a small business he wholly owned.
Both of these debts have now been repaid, Global Counsel said, alongside a further £1m which was owed to co-founder and former Blair adviser Benjamin Charles Wegg-Prosser.
The move marks the latest sign of Global Counsel cutting ties with Mandelson after further details emerged of his association with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, triggering his ousting from government.
Mandelson had resigned as a director from the company in 2024 in order to take up his role as the new UK ambassador to the US, from which he has now been removed.
The former Labour spin doctor had controlled one of the biggest stakes in the business with more than a million shares, Companies House filings show, but significantly sold down his stake in December 2024, taking his holding below 25 per cent. Global Counsel has since sought a buyer for Mandelson’s remaining shares, to reduce his ownership of the business to zero.
Global Counsel sees profits rise
Global Counsel’s latest results show the company saw a jump in turnover, with revenue rising by a third in 2024 to £21.6m, helping turn around a previous loss of £1.8m in 2023 to a profit of £250,000.
“The group made excellent progress through 2024,” Global Counsel said. “Our success reflects the significant market opportunity arising from increasing geo-political uncertainty.”
More than two dozen major corporations hired Global Counsel to conduct lobbying services over the past two years, disclosures from the Office of the Register of Consultant Lobbyists show, including the period during which Mandelson, who co-founded the business, was a director.
The list of Global Counsel’s recent partners includes the likes of FTSE 100 giants Shell and GSK, as well as investment firm M&G, ChatGPT maker OpenAI and professional services firm Accenture. The disclosures do not describe the extent of the work carried out or the size of sums exchanged.
Public filings show Global Counsel was not hired for any lobby consultancy work between April 2022 and September 2023. But the number of clients the firm partnered with ramped up in subsequent months, peaking at 20 in the third quarter of last year, in signs firms valued its apparent connections with the incoming Labour administration.
Banks were among the most common clients of Global Counsel, the disclosures show, including the likes of FTSE 100 constituent Standard Chartered and US banking giant JP Morgan, which were both listed as clients during the period July to September 2024. JPM was also listed in 2023.