Lord Mandelson's consultancy firm Global Counsel went bust owing £4.5MILLION - including hundreds of thousands to the taxman

By SAM GREENHILL, THE CHIEF REPORTER Published: 11:16, 23 April 2026 | Updated: 11:16, 23 April 2026 Lord Mandelson’s money-spinning consultancy firm Global Counsel went bust owing £4.5million – including more than half a million pounds to the taxman, it was revealed today. The corporate strategy firm set up by the disgraced peer collapsed in February amid the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Today it filed a ‘statement of affairs’ at Companies House reporting its bills to creditors are £4,596,149 more than the value of its assets. Among those out of pocket are HM Revenue and Customs, with the taxman being owed £645,000. Lord Mandelson set up the firm in 2010 to make his fortune - but it sacked its own founder last September just minutes after he was fired as Britain’s ambassador to Washington. The Labour grandee’s downfall came after a torrent of sickening emails showing his closeness to his ‘best pal’ Epstein, a convicted child sex predator. The creepy holiday snap that triggered his downfall: Lord Mandelson in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with 'best pal' Epstein  Happier times: Sir Keir Starmer with his ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson before he sacked him Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein at a boutique in the Caribbean in 2005 Directors of Global Counsel got rid of Lord Mandelson fearing the ‘threat of negative media coverage’ from their founder, an internal note revealed. But it was not enough to save the company, and as the Epstein scandal grew, Global Counsel went into administration on February 20, three days before Lord Mandelson was arrested by police. The peer was quizzed over allegations that while serving as a minister he passed on market-sensitive government information to the late convicted paedophile Epstein. Lord Mandelson is on police bail and has not been charged with any offence. When Mandelson started Global Counsel, it was after Labour lost the general election and David Cameron became Prime Minister. It was a strategy and communications firm founded by him with his long-term associate Benjamin Wegg-Prosser. Among Global Counsel's many clients were Chinese-owned TikTok and US tech firm Palantir. It had six offices across the world. At one stage last year, Lord Mandelson had a 21 per cent stake worth around £6million ($8.1 million). But he is not among the creditors owed money by the firm, according to the list prepared by administrators. Lord Mandelson was held for around nine hours following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He denies wrongdoing In this photo from the Epstein files, Lord Mandelson stands in white underwear talking to a woman in a dressing gown Documents at Companies House show Lord Mandelson's old firm Global Counsel owed £645,000 to the taxman when it went bust this year In February, the New Labour architect launched a furious attack on Scotland Yard for swooping on his home to detain him. Detectives had received intelligence that the disgraced former minister presented a 'flight risk' and could flee abroad to avoid potential prosecution for misconduct in public office.  But Lord Mandelson told friends police had been taken in by 'complete fiction', pointing out that he has been cooperating fully with the investigation. Lord Mandelson has denied any criminal wrongdoing in his dealings with Epstein, or acting for personal profit. 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.