Qatar lobbying UK government through Mandelson firm linked to Epstein

Qatar is using a firm co-founded by the disgraced former politician Peter Mandelson to lobby senior UK government officials, despite revelations that the company had close ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded and chaired until 2024, is listed on the UK's Foreign Influence Registration Scheme as a lobbyist for the Qatari government, with its contract set to run until August 2026.

Major clients of the consultancy firm, including Barclays and the Premier League, cut ties this week following fresh revelations about Mandelson and the firm's relationship with Epstein.

Files released by the US Department of Justice appeared to show that Mandelson sought Epstein's consultation on the business' affairs after his 2008 guilty plea to child sex offences.

Global Counsel's lobbying on behalf of Qatar was first officially registered in December 2025, after Mandelson was dismissed from his post as the UK's ambassador to the United States in September 2025 over his ties to the financier.

According to the register, Global Counsel has communicated with "senior UK government officials with an interest in technology and infrastructure policy" on behalf of Qatar. It also serves to "inform and guide the State of Qatar on macro-economic and political trends".

Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, who founded Global Counsel alongside Mandelson, resigned as the firm's chief executive last week after file releases appeared to show that he met Epstein in March 2010.

Neither Qatar nor Global Counsel responded to requests for comment regarding the future of their relationship.

Mandelson stepped down from the firm’s board in 2024, with former Conservative MP Archie Norman becoming chair.

However, he retained shares in the company until last week, when the firm announced that they had been fully divested.

Target Client

Correspondence involving Mandelson's Global Counsel email address appears more than 800 times across the roughly three million files released by the US government.

These include a March 2010 email forwarded by Mandelson to Epstein in which he outlined his "first shot at crystallising business venture", naming Qatar among a list of "examples/target" clients.

Other files released last week appear to show that Epstein had extensive contact with senior Qatari officials. In 2018, Epstein brokered a meeting between former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani and former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak.

In a 2012 email to Mandelson, Epstein wrote: "I think you should consider introducing me to anyone you think could be a huge business participant. I would like to be helpful to you."

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In another email dated September 2010, two months before Mandelson and Wegg-Prosser launched Global Counsel, Epstein appeared to advise Mandelson on private equity firms with which to partner.

The message read: "Had lunch with BS today. He said that of all the private equity funds I sd [sic] consider working with, the best in his view is Apollo. I would want to do more with them if you were working with them."

According to Global Counsel's website, the firm serves "clients who want to engage with regulatory and policy change" in the UK, helping to ensure they are "engaging the right decision-makers in the right places with the right messages".

Ties between Global Counsel and Qatar predate the firm's official registration on the foreign influence database in December 2025.

In 2023, the Substack publication Democracy for Sale revealed that Global Counsel had lobbied a UK government minister on behalf of the Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA), an entity chaired by a Qatari government minister, without declaring the activity.

The omission prompted an investigation by the UK’s Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists after a complaint was lodged by Spotlight on Corruption.

Global Counsel was cleared of wrongdoing in February 2025 due to a controversial loophole in UK law permitting unregistered lobbying carried out by overseas subsidiaries of consultancy firms. The firm has maintained an office in Doha since 2021.