Largest client of Mandelson's lobbying firm 'was company accused of links to Chinese military'

By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 20:15, 19 April 2026 | Updated: 20:15, 19 April 2026 Fresh questions have been raised over Keir Starmer's support for Lord Mandelson after it emerged that a company accused of links to the Chinese military was his lobbying firm's biggest client. Global Counsel, which was founded by the peer and former New Labour minister, made more than £3.5million in 2024 and 2025 from WuXi AppTec, according to leaked documents. The Shanghai-listed biotech firm was targeted by a bill introduced to Congress in 2024 that would have prohibited it from receiving government contacts on national security grounds. It never made it into law and a watered down version that was eventually passed last year by Donald Trump did not specify any companies by name.  The same year a cross-party group of congressmen demanded a probe into the firm's 'alarming ties to the Chinese military'. Separately Global Counsel, which ceased trading earlier this year as Mandelson's past association with Jeffrey Epstein came to light, was today also accused of lobbying ministers on behalf of a private equity firm later blacklisted in the United States. According to a report by UK China Transparency (UKCT) it acted for Canyon Bridge, when in 2020 it tried to replace the board of a UK microchip firm it had acquired three years previously. It was allowed to buy Imagination Technologies for £550million in 2017, despite concerns over its ultimate owner being Beijing-controlled China Reform.  Weeks before the takeover the US government blocked Canyon Bridge from buying American chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor on grounds of national security.  Global Counsel, which was founded by the peer and former New Labour minister, made more than £3.5million in the past two years from WuXi AppTec. The Shanghai-listed biotech firm was targeted by a bill introduced to Congress in 2024 that would have prohibited it from receiving government contacts on national security grounds, though it failed to become law Mr Mandelson was involved with GC at the time. He resigned from the board in 2024 and sold his final shares in the firm as he became mired in the Epstein scandal, in a failed attempt to distance it from his actions and prevent clients from leaving. Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the co-chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), told the Mail Global Council had been 'advising and helping companies who could be seen as threats to UK business and to the defence of the country'. 'We have known about this ever since he came in, we were complaining about all that we knew about the people he was working with and it was just poo-pooed as though it was irrelevant,' he added. 'He (Keir Starmer) must have known about Global Counsel, I cannot think that nobody told him that Mandelson has deep links through Global Counsel to Chinese companies, very exposed to the (Chinese) government.' WuXi defended its business activities when targeted in 2024.  In an 'open letter to our customers' it said: 'WuXi AppTec does not pose a national security risk to any country. 'While the US government has determined that certain companies do pose such a risk to the United States and has imposed sanctions against them, WuXi AppTec has never been subject to any such determination or sanction.  'We welcome regulatory oversight of our industry, including the proposed evaluation of biotech companies in the recent legislation.  'But we strongly object to blanket allegations and preemptive actions against our company without due process.' In 2024, Global Counsel told UKCT that it 'supported Canyon Bridge [to] develop a strategy to reassure UK stakeholders' and had not worked for China Reform. Lord Mandelson was approached to comment.  No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.