Peter Mandelson considered a 'privileged contact' by Russian spies attempting to 'manipulating UK politics' for decades, report claims

By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 09:47, 2 July 2026 | Updated: 09:49, 2 July 2026 Peter Mandelson was considered a 'privileged contact' in Britain by Russian spies attempting to manipulate UK politics, reports about a bombshell new dossier have claimed. The disgraced former Labour grandee was branded 'one of the most significant RIS [Russian intelligence services] achievements in manipulating UK politics' over the past 30 years according to reports of a leaked document said to have been compiled by a former MI6 agent. Project Fish was compiled by Christopher Steele, who gained notoriety for creating the 'Trump dossier' on unverified claims that the US president was 'compromised' by the Kremlin - sparking a denial and legal action. Steele has also claimed that Jeffrey Epstein, Lord Mandelson's paedophile former friend, may have spent decades helping Russian spies collect damaging 'kompromat' on western elites. Allies of Lord Mandelson, the former Labour peer whose short tenure as ambassador to the US ended amid a row over his closeness to Epstein, dismissed the claims in the report. It alleged the ex-Tony Blair spin doctor was first contacted by the KGB, the Soviet intelligence service, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when he was Labour's director of communications. 'Since then has become a privileged contact for Russian intelligence, first as a promising Labour functionary, then as a key member of Blair's inner circle before getting elected to Parliament and becoming a senior politician in his own right,' the Steele dossier is said to claim, in comments first reported by the Telegraph. It also claimed the Russians kept files on other leading UK politicians including Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn, though there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any of them. The disgraced former Labour grandee was branded 'one of the most significant RIS [Russian intelligence services] achievements in manipulating UK politics' over the past 30 years A dossier alleged the ex-Tony Blair spin doctor (pictured in 1989 with Neil Kinnock) was first contacted by the KGB, the Soviet intelligence service in 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall The dossier does not provide any evidence that Lord Mandelson spied for Russia and his allies pointed out that he opposed the Kremlin many times throughout his political career.  But it raises questions about whether Whitehall was aware of the allegations when he was allowed to take up the UK's top diplomatic posting. Documents released earlier this year show that the peer's links with Russia and China were flagged during his vetting process but he was approved anyway. His connections to Chinese finance minister Lan Fo’an, Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and former Israeli military intelligence general Tamir Hayman were raised by the vetting agency in a nine-page summary, it has been reported. The Telegraph reported that the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence agency, kept a file on Mandelson's relationship with Epstein. Lord Mandelson has been 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.