Global Counsel, the advisory firm co‑founded by Peter Mandelson, has gone into administration following the scandal over his links to Jeffrey Epstein, administrators have confirmed. The collapse follows reports on Thursday that the firm had been hit by a wave of client departures after fresh revelations about Lord Mandelson’s connections to the late convicted sex offender.Administrators from Interpath have been appointed to Global Counsel after the London‑based lobbying firm ceased trading and confirmed its UK staff were being made redundant.The company said it had suffered a significant financial blow as clients cut ties in large numbers, leaving directors with no choice but to call in administrators.Will Wright, Interpath’s UK chief executive and joint administrator, said: “While Global Counsel had grown over the past 15 years to become one of the UK’s leading public affairs consultancies, the rapid and sudden loss of clients over recent weeks has had a monumental impact on the business.”Steve Absolom, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, added: “Our immediate focus is on supporting the talented and loyal UK team of Global Counsel employees who, having collectively built a market‑leading business, now sadly find themselves having to be made redundant.”The collapse comes as Lord Mandelson, who resigned as US ambassador last year, left the Labour Party earlier this month.The latest tranche of the so‑called Epstein files, released by the US Department of Justice, included further allegations about his dealings with the financier, including claims he leaked confidential documents to him.Lord Mandelson has not publicly commented on the allegations.Police have reportedly searched two properties connected to the peer, but said no arrests have been made.The former ambassador issued a personal apology to the victims of Epstein, admitting he was wrong to maintain a friendship with the disgraced financier after his conviction.Lord Mandelson has been under mounting scrutiny since his dismissal as US ambassador last September, after Downing Street said “new information” had emerged about his friendship with Epstein. Labour peer Baroness Kennedy said it was “shocking” he had not apologised earlier.“Somebody like Peter Mandelson should have known better than to go on television and not be apologising to those women who have suffered so terribly,” she said.Shortly before his dismissal last year, Lord Mandelson told the BBC he had “relied on assurances of Epstein’s innocence that turned out later to be horrendously false”. In a letter to embassy staff after he was sacked, he wrote: “I continue to feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein 20 years ago and the plight of his victims.”MORE TO FOLLOW
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