WHAT did Labour ministers and advisers talk about with Global Counsel, before Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm collapsed in scandal? I have some answers shown in recently released government documents.

Mandelson stopped being a government minister in 2010 and founded his consultancy, Global Counsel, to make money from his political contacts and knowledge. Mandelson stepped down from the board in 2024, expecting a job from Keir Starmer, who then appointed him ambassador to Washington. Mandelson remained a major shareholder in his firm right up to this February. Mandelson’s former ministerial aide Ben Wegg-Prosser, who helped Mandelson set up Global Counsel, became chief executive.

Global Counsel hired key political insiders, then told client companies they would help them “see opportunities in politics, regulation and public policy.” The firm had a history of representing some of the most controversial firms, including big Russian corporations. Its Russian links were so strong that Global Counsel represented Uber in Moscow in 2015-6 when the “gig economy” firm wanted to expand its business there.

Uber wanted “strategic allies” among the Russian elite, turning to Global Counsel for its contacts with Russian oligarchs. This was a year after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Crimea. Global Counsel’s latest clients included Palantir, the sinister tech firm chasing NHS contracts run by Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel.

For many of us, a Mandelson influence-peddling company was always disreputable. However, Starmer’s leadership relied heavily on Mandelson to engineer their shift from fake left to centrist politics, so welcomed both him and his firm.

The rest of the world now accept Global Counsel was too dodgy to continue. The Epstein files showed both Mandelson and his second-in-command Wegg-Prosser visited Epstein at his mansion and relied on advice from the convicted-sex abuser-financier on how to set up Global Counsel. Epstein’s “influence operation” was sleazy and criminal so this relationship being confirmed by the Epstein files finally killed off Global Counsel. Clients deserted the firm, which is now going into administration.

Before its extinction government ministers and officials had multiple, regular meetings with Global Counsel. This was true under Tory governments, as Mandelson’s firm hired ex-Tory ministers like Nicola Blackwood. The meetings increased under Starmer’s government, reflecting Mandelson’s special place with Starmer’s team. There are multiple meetings on record, but finding out what they involved is hard. For example, official records show Matthew Doyle had two “dinners” with Global Counsel, in October 2024 and February 2025. Doyle was then the No 10 director of communications.

Doyle was such a key member of Team Starmer that Keir put him in the Lords as “Baron Doyle.” These dinners were particularly cursed events. This January Doyle was suspended from Labour because he had been too close to a councillor, Sean Morton, who was convicted of possessing indecent images of children.

Doyle campaigned for Morton in a council election even after he was arrested for having child abuse images. Both Doyle and Global Counsel have since been disgraced over links to sex offenders. Unfortunately, however, No 10 responded to my freedom of information inquiry, saying: “A search of our records has not located any recorded information of relevance to your request.”

All details of the meetings have disappeared, beyond the record that they happened.

Even where there are records of Global Counsel dinners with ministers or officials — and there are many — information can be sparse. Because these meetings are labelled “dinners,” the government will not release the names of “guests” at the events joining the ministers and the lobbyists, claiming this is “personal information.” These “guests” are likely to be the lobbyists’ clients who want to influence the government.

I did manage to get more details of one ministerial Global Counsel meeting, possibly because they did not use this “dinner” disguise.

Last June Baroness Poppy Gustafsson, who was investment minister from 2024 to 2025 met Global Counsel “to discuss private equity trends and investment priorities in the UK.” Global Counsel sent its now-disgraced boss Wegg-Prosser. Global Counsel says it represents private equity firms — meaning financiers that buy and sell whole companies. Its listed clients include big banks JP Morgan and Banco Santander, which are both involved in private equity. According to the notes, Wegg-Prosser “highlighted that there was more private equity in Spain than anywhere else, particularly in the health and education sectors” — presumably reflecting his client Banco Santander’s views. He seems to be recommending more corporate involvement in health and education.  

It seems like Global Counsel promoting further privatisation of key public services in a way that advantages its clients.

The notes also say that Wegg-Prosser “asked about PG’s [Poppy Gustafsson’s] recent Saudi, Qatar, and Bahrain visits this year and discussed significant recent developments in AI infrastructure in the Middle East.”

According to official records, Global Counsel started representing Qatar one month before this meeting, so Wegg-Prosser could have been seeking “inside information” from a government minister that would be helpful to his client, a foreign country.

The notes also say Wegg-Prosser “asked about PG’s priorities with France, and PG highlighted tech as an important sector here.” Global Counsel has an office in Paris, having increased its French business by absorbing a local public relations firm in 2024, so again Wegg-Prosser seems to have been looking for information useful to his clients.

Way back in 2010, future Tory leader David Cameron said “corporate lobbying” was the “next big scandal waiting to happen.”

Cameron gave an insider’s view, saying: “We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way.”

Cameron said it corroded people’s belief in politics, with “money buying power, power fishing for money and a cosy club at the top making decisions in their own interest.”

Instead of cleaning up politics, Cameron actually joined the sleazy lobbying he decried. The system he describes has continued to this day. The Epstein scandal has exposed and destroyed one of the key players in this “money buying power” game, but without systemic change, they will simply be replaced by one of their competitors.