A “significant tranche” of Lord Peter Mandelson's business emails is missing, an internal investigation by the lobbying firm he founded has revealed.
Global Counsel, which Lord Mandelson set up in 2010, but left when he was made Britain's ambassador to the US in 2024, went into liquidation last week, amid growing scrutiny over the disgraced politician’s friendship and business dealings with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Before calling in administrators, the company vowed to conduct an internal audit of Lord Mandelson’s emails, following an announcement from the UK government that it would publish tens of thousands of messages from his time as US ambassador to Washington.
Concerned about the potential impact this might have on the firm's business interests, the company said it conducted the internal review as part of a due diligence process.
The audit revealed a gaping hole with “significant” numbers of emails missing, according to a report in The Times.
“The company does not know how the emails came to be missing,” the article, which does not name its sources, says.
The revelation comes after Lord Mandelson was arrested on Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, having been accused of passing sensitive information on to Epstein during his time as business secretary. He has been bailed until May.
Global Counsel’s audit of Lord Mandelson’s account reportedly found that the remaining emails include interactions with senior officials and ministers in government, and relate directly to Lord Mandelson's appointment as ambassador.
They are said to include messages to David Lammy, then-foreign secretary, and Morgan McSweeney, then-Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. The overall cache of emails, dating back almost a decade, is thought to amount to 1.4 million messages.
According to The Times, Lord Mandelson stopped being able to access his Global Counsel email address in February 2025 after he took up his role as Washington ambassador.
For its part, Global Counsel reportedly said it had been prepared to provide the emails to the government or police but had not received a request to do so before the firm went into administration.
The company’s electronic devices and emails are now in the hands of the administrators.
This week, the government confirmed that the prime minister will not be able to overrule Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) on what documents related to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador are made public. The move came amid persistent questions surrounding the vetting process for Lord Mandelson’s appointment in 2024, and in particular, concerning what was known about his links to Epstein at the time.
The revelation that the emails have vanished also comes immediately after the European Commission asked the EU’s anti-fraud agency to open an inquiry into Lord Mandelson’s time as trade commissioner in Brussels, in the wake of the release of the Epstein files.
The Independent has contacted Global Counsel for comment.
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