Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander failed to publicly declare a meeting with Peter Mandelson's lobbying firm, Global Counsel, for a year and a half after it took place, newly released documents reveal.
The meeting occurred in summer 2024, just weeks after Alexander became trade minister on 6 July. In an email exchange, Alexander thanked Mandelson for arranging the introduction, describing the session with a Global Counsel representative as "the single most enlightening conversation I've had in the last month on trade."
UK law requires ministers to report meetings with lobbyists every three months. However, Transparency International UK found that the meeting was only added to the public transparency log on 25 March 2025—after MPs ordered the release of Mandelson's contacts with ministers in February. A government note stated the log was updated to correct a "previously omitted" entry.
Global Counsel, co-founded by Mandelson in 2010, collapsed earlier this year amid revelations about Mandelson's ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The firm's clients had included major corporations like GSK, Shell, JPMorgan, OpenAI, and the English Premier League.
Juliet Swann of Transparency International UK said, "Declarations of government meetings are the only light shone on the lobbying of ministers at Westminster, so to fail to record meetings with influential lobbyists undermines the principle of transparency."
The documents also show Alexander credited Mandelson with helping him return to Parliament in 2024, thanking him for support over several years. Both Alexander and the Department for Business and Trade have been approached for comment.