The UK's US envoy pick should make you very, very worried: Dekleptocracy Report #33, 6 January 2025
THE DEKLEPTOCRACY REPORT
January 6, 2024
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONTWelcome to our 33rd newsletter and Happy New Year! In this issue we look at the UK’s incoming ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson. Undoubtedly one of the brightest stars in UK politics since 1985, the British government is betting that the Trump administration will work with him to reach some key targets, such as marketing a free-trade-agreement that sets the terms of bilateral trades for decades to come. However, he’s also one of the most scandal-prone figures in British political life, and has spent many years now shilling for big companies, even sitting on the board of a Russian military-industrial group. He might feel all too at home in the incoming administration – and both Britain and the American people could suffer for it.As always, forward the newsletter along and sign up if you haven’t already, and if you want to support our work, please consider making a tax-deductible donation here. Your contribution helps us keep producing analysis like this, scale our investigative reporting hub for local journalists, as well as long-term investigations that support journalists, authorities, and activists in the fight against authoritarian corruption at home and abroad. Every bit helps!We are also launching a second regular newsletter with a focus on corruption in America, so stay tuned!THE UK’S US ENVOY PICK SHOULD MAKE YOU VERY, VERY WORRIEDThe debut of the Trump presidency sequel at the end of January puts America’s allies in a tough spot. The UK is a prime example. After the shocks of the global financial crisis (2008), Brexit (2016) and COVID-19 (2020-22), growth has settled into an anemic pace. Inflation – the bugbear of the world since COVID-19 – posted an eight-month high of 2.6% in the 12 months through November 2024. In short, the UK needs an economic booster shot and has been marketing the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries for four and a half years. So, who does a left-leaning British government go to in a crisis? Well, last month, it named Peter Mandelson – long dubbed the Prince of Darkness in the UK media for being Tony Blair’s political Svengali for much of the 1990s and 2000s – as ambassador to the US, despite a track record tainted by public scandals and an open investigation in the UK. However, we argue, there’s a better option on the table.Is it a desperate move for the UK and one that will harm the Special Alliance over the long term by feeding the worst instincts of the incoming team? The scale of the challenge for the UK government is stark. First are the growth and inflation figures inherited from the previous government. In office since early July, the government of Keir Starmer has had a pretty short honeymoon, but it’s still doing better among voters than most of the British press would want you to believe. Still, the polling by IPSOS shows that a solid 25% of voters would prefer Reform Party MP Nigel Farage in the top spot, a big score for a country with five-to-six national parties. Last week, Elon Musk, invoking Trump, has waded in to say that he wanted to put US$100 million into Reform UK, a party he has dubbed “the UK’s only hope” (For those keeping score at home, he's since called for Farage's ousting...).One can see, then, the risk of the UK government getting in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. Its allies in US rightwing media can also do significant damage across the pond. And, for the first time in history, the UK has a Bonafide right-wing nationalist political TV platform in GB News. Once so bad it technically reported no viewers at times, it seems to be thriving with the Tories out of power for the first time in 14 years, and with high-profile protests by farmers, GB News overtook incumbent Sky News for live TV viewing across one month for the first time. Spend any time on British social media these days and you’ll see British versions of every major US political conspiracy, plus a few. One nadir reached earlier this year was a hate campaign against (checks notes) the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a charity founded in 1824, that rescues people in the UK’s rough seas. Farage described it as a “migrant taxi” for the sin of rescuing drowning people without checking their papers first.Mover and shakerIf you lived in the UK under Prime Minister Blair, Mandelson equaled almost all of Bill Clinton’s unelected advisors at the time in terms of notoriety and influence. He emerged as a media advisor in the mid-80s alongside the rising faction of Blair and Gordon Brown in the party. It was reported that he was so antagonistic to traditional Labour activists, he used a codename (“Bobby”). In the meantime, the Labour Party lost general election after general election, reaching a nadir when the Tories, under John Major, defied polls to win in 1992, even as the party was in open rebellion over Europe. But once Blair came to power in a 1997 landslide, many credited Mandelson in helping to refine his image as a populist who defied both the hardcore union activists of his party and the small government, small budget ethos in the City of London and on the right.Ironically, it was Mandelson himself who provided Blair with some of his biggest domestic political scandals. While head of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 1998, he reportedly obtained – and failed to declare – an interest-free loan of £373,000 (over US$600,000 at the time) from a member of the cabinet (who was then under review by DTI) to buy a house in the then up-and-coming London suburb of Notting Hill. This may seem small potatoes according to modern US standards of propriety for public officials (see stock trading by members of both houses, for instance). But it helped end the perception that the Blair government was going to bring a revolution in integrity to modern British governance after decades of scandal.He returned to the government after ten months as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during a critical period in the peace accords. Again, he resigned, this time for allegedly promoting the passport applications of two Indian businessmen then under investigation for their alleged roles in a Swedish Indian bribery scandal. (Notably, an Indian court cleared both in 2005). Again, he appeared to use his role for private means. Having left his parliamentary seat, he became a Lord in 2008. Today, he’s a Lord and a lobbyist, with the UK media reporting that, under the new Labour government in power since July 5, his firm Global Counsel has helped 23 major clients to arrange meetings or other communications with ministers or senior civil servants.Cometh the hour?Mandelson’s past 17 years as a Lord have seen him as an advisor working for multinationals – including a Chinese milk firm that reportedly caused thousands of children to become ill in 2008, with six deaths after he had visited the factory the week before. Reporting that same year highlighted his long-standing relationship with Russian oligarchic business figure Oleg Derispaska that included a period when Mandelson was responsible for EU matters for one of Deripaska’s companies. But the Deripaska relationship is just one of Mandelson’s links with Russian individuals and entities tied to the Putin regime. In 2014, Mandelson’s role as a director of Russian group Sistema – which includes electronics and radar systems used by Russian forces in Ukraine over the past decade – came under renewed scrutiny. He’s also defended China against Trump attacks the last time round (and yes, he had a Chinese state government company as a client at the same time, according to the Guardian). At the very least, Trump’s TikTok allies’ hearts will be warmed that the UK is sending a TikTok lobbyist to represent its interests in the US. With all this, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Mandelson has a pattern of cashing in on his prominent role in UK and European politics for personal gain and the UK. Even as this newsletter is being written, his Global Counsel is reportedly under investigation by the UK’s Office of the Registrar for Consultant Lobbyists for alleged reporting failures. While some on the extremes of the MAGA movement may dismiss Mandelson for his past critical comments about Trump or his ostensibly center-left politics, one can predict he might fit in very well at the White House and on the Hill over the next few years.One could argue that the UK and US need a tough negotiator to deal with the Trump administration. But one could also argue that – in recent years, at least, but arguably going back much further – the pursuit of profit, rather than the national interest, seems to be his primary concern. British commentators from around the spectrum have real fears about the harm that US agricultural products might cause to the UK food supply chain or the quality of school food or the environment. It’s easy to imagine that those are precisely the things the US will ensure are in their favor in any FTA. Mandelson has also made strong statements – for instance, aspects of supporting Israel against Gaza that clash with the Starmer government’s stated position – that will be dredged up each time Britain and the US have to cooperate. The fear is that he will sign off on deals behind the scenes and present them as faits accomplis to the British government.Mandelson’s appointment also throws doubt on British Foreign Secretary David Lammy‘s plans to make fighting global kleptocracy the cornerstone of UK foreign policy over the coming years. As we detailed in our story about Lammy in June 2024, one of his perceived strengths is his experience living and working in the US and careful cultivation of relationships across the American political spectrum, including with conservatives. It makes one wonder if Lammy himself would be the better appointment for both the UK and the US alike right now. Lammy is a professional politician and not without controversy, but his conflicts of interest are far more limited – he has not shilled for the industries he is overseeing for the FTA and does not have a track record of working for high-profile Russians. In person, he’s a formidable and driven figure, with the sense to cooperate where appropriate and stand firm when required. By contrast, Mandelson’s record suggests that he may or may not hold the incoming administration to account – and that will harm America too.
The Dekleptocracy Project (DKP) is a 501(c)(3) following the authoritarian money from Virginia. We're on a mission to show how existing levers of accountability can protect democracy and prevent authoritarians, their networks, and enablers from exploiting or circumventing the US system. As always, please sign up and forward this newsletter.
