Revealed: Peter Mandelson’s Russian Connections and Palantir Lobbying Links
The disgraced peer was appointed by Keir Starmer’s Government despite warnings about his role on the board of a Russian defence conglomerate linked to Moscow’s early-warning missile systems
Nafeez Ahmed, Peter Jukes, Josiah Mortimer and Adam Bienkov
11 March 2026
eir Starmer approved the appointment of the disgraced peer Lord Mandelson to be the UK’s ambassador to the US, despite officials highlighting his financial links to a Russian defence technology company that produces radar and satellite communications for the country’s land-based missile early-warning system, new documents reveal
Mandelson’s appointment was “rushed” through, the documents reveal, despite a due diligence report by the Cabinet Office’s Proprietary and Ethics Team (PET) highlighting that he had served on the board of the Russian conglomerate Sistema.
The Russia connection was not the only warning put to senior figures in Number 10. The documents also raise questions about why Mandelson retained his shares in his lobbying outfit Global Counsel during his short term as Ambassador, despite officials insisting that he should divest them.
According to the PET report, Downing Street were warned that “the retained role and interest in Global Counsel would have to cease” if Mandelson was appointed as ambassador.
However, despite resigning as Director, the peer apparently retained significant shareholdings in Global Counsel at the same time as the company organised a meeting between the Prime Minister Keir Starmer and their client, Peter Thiel’s controversial data giant Palantir, in February 2025. Mandelson did not fully divest his shares until after resigning from the role.
The same due diligence pack, dated 11 December 2024, had flagged Lord Mandelson’s continuing shareholdings in technology companies and his paid roles across finance and investment, raising fresh questions about whether No 10 knowingly accepted a web of conflicts of interest at the heart of the UK’s most commercially and strategically sensitive diplomatic post.
Democracy in Britain:
The Humble Address process in Parliament 20th April 2026 was difficult to watch.
Today, 21st April 2026, Olly Robbins before Parliament:
When someone or some country is weakened, the bullies move in:
News on Olly Robbins in Parliament:
Olly Robbins: Foreign Office under ‘constant pressure’ from No10 to sign off Peter Mandelson appointment
Sacked foreign office boss Robbins accused Downing Street of a ‘dismissive approach’ to vetting and creating an ‘atmosphere of pressure’ to install disgraced peer in Washington as quickly as possible
Trump administration warned not to appoint Mandelson:
Trump’s team repeatedly tried to intervene over Mandelson appointment
Two people tell POLITICO that the initial response to the controversial ambassadorial appointment was deeply skeptical, despite eventual assent.
March 20, 2026 4:00 am CET
By Daniel Lippman and Esther Webber
LONDON — Senior members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team attempted on more than one occasion to intervene in Keir Starmer’s decision in 2024 to remove Karen Pierce as ambassador and replace her with Peter Mandelson, according to a former Trump official and a serving U.K. official.
Trump’s aides told Starmer’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell and his then-Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney that they wanted Pierce to remain in post during a meeting in Palm Beach in early December 2024, the officials told POLITICO.
Later the same month, people working on the transition placed a call to Powell and told him they were unhappy at the treatment of Pierce and that they did not like that Mandelson had been picked, according to the same former Trump official.
Trump’s aides were particularly exercised that Mandelson could be made ambassador after he had made disparaging public remarks about the president in the past, according to both officials.
The details about the interaction between the two leaders’ teams have not previously been reported and underscore the disquiet within the president’s inner circle about one of Starmer’s first major foreign policy decisions on becoming prime minister — and a juncture at which his key aides could have urged Starmer to think again.
Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was among those wary of Mandelson, according to the former U.S. official already cited and a second official still serving in the administration, with one saying she saw him as “arrogant” and rude to staff.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said: “This is an inaccurate representation of this meeting and what was said.” Wiles had no comment.
Downing Street declined to comment.
Mandelson was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to Washington last September over his past friendship with the late convicted sex offender Epstein, but further revelations from documents released in the U.S. prompted a police investigation into his conduct, leading to his arrest in February.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-team-intervene-peter-mandelson-appointment-us-uk/
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