{"id":19023,"date":"2026-02-05T12:38:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=19023"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:38:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:38:38","slug":"mandelson-sought-epsteins-help-in-hunt-for-lucrative-roles-at-glencore-and-bp-peter-mandelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=19023","title":{"rendered":"Mandelson sought Epstein\u2019s help in hunt for lucrative roles at Glencore and BP | Peter Mandelson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Peter Mandelson began seeking advice from the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> on how to land \u201chighly paid\u201d senior roles with companies including BP and Glencore within days of Labour\u2019s 2010 electoral defeat, emails show.<\/p>\n

A flurry of messages, sent in the weeks and months following the collapse of the New Labour project, reveal how Epstein mentored Mandelson as the former cabinet minister touted himself for lucrative jobs at global businesses.<\/p>\n

The emails \u2013 released by the US justice department<\/a> among 3m pages of files on Epstein \u2013 lay bare the money-spinning opportunities available to departing ministers.<\/p>\n

In particular, they reveal Mandelson\u2019s dogged pursuit of a job with the global mining firm Glencore, which became known as the \u201cbillionaire factory\u201d thanks to the huge rewards on offer to senior staff from its $60bn stock market float in 2011.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mandelson offered to help the company with \u201cgovernment attention and interference\u201d as it prepared its listing. Glencore had faced scrutiny over its tax affairs and environmental record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pair also discussed the possibility of Mandelson taking a lucrative job as a \u201cfireman\u201d, helping BP to manage the ongoing reputational and financial fallout of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and environmental disaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mandelson\u2019s post-parliamentary job hunt appears to have begun in earnest on 22 May 2010, 11 days after Labour lost power, the latest tranche of Epstein files suggest.<\/p>\n

Days after losing his role as a cabinet minister, Mandelson wrote to Epstein to say that he was due to meet Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore\u2019s billionaire chief executive, later that day. Mandelson highlighted Glasenberg\u2019s 30% stake in another mining company, Xstrata, which he said \u201cmay be looking [for] a chairman\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mandelson said that throwing his hat in the ring was \u201cNat[\u2019s] idea\u201d, understood to be a reference to his friend, the financier Nat Rothschild<\/a>, who was an investor in the mining industry and knew Glasenberg.<\/p>\n

Sources close to Rothschild said he spoke to multiple people about the role and that they may have included Mandelson.<\/p>\n

The following month, Mandelson wrote to Epstein, saying: \u201cNo call from Glasenberg. Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

The friends appear to have begun considering other options, including an opportunistic bid to take a senior role at BP, which was mired in crisis as oil from its doomed Deepwater Horizon rig<\/a> gushed into the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

Epstein told Mandelson that he should offer to \u201cbe in charge of this crisis, in all aspects\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mandelson responded: \u201cJust to be clear [\u2026] I come in fireman role as highly paid adviser etc?\u201d<\/p>\n

But emails between the pair indicate that their priority was Glencore, as it geared up for a stock market float that was expected to make tens of millions of pounds for its directors and investors.<\/p>\n

In June, as they discussed a separate job offer that the former Labour cabinet minister had received from Deutsche Bank, Epstein advised that \u201cwe can leverage against Glencore\u201d.<\/p>\n

A day later, the disgraced financier added: \u201cMy suggestion is for you to tell Nat, so that he can tell Glencore,\u201d apparently indicating a plan to get Rothschild to inform Glencore that Mandelson had other offers.<\/p>\n

Then, in July, Mandelson pitched his services directly to Glasenberg in a lengthy cover letter that referenced the two men having met in London.<\/p>\n

Mandelson described himself as an \u201cexperienced pair of hands\u201d with a lot to offer Glencore ahead of its stock market float, planned for 2011.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am keen aged 56 to re-tooll myself to one major opportunity and not pursue a wide range of interests like many people in my position tend to do,\u201d he wrote in one typo-ridden email.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the more specific value I beliieve I can bring to Glencore is a knowledge of politics, government and regulatory trends which are ggoing to have more and more bearing on a company like Glencore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the coming decade and beyond, business is goiing to have to face a lot more government attention and interference,\u201d he added, highlighting the risk to businesses with \u201cenvironmental and political impact\u201d.<\/p>\n

Glencore would go on to attract significant scrutiny with regard to its tax affairs, environmental impact and relationship with communities in the often remote parts of the world where it owned mines and trade commodities such as oil and metals.<\/p>\n

Glasenberg wrote back the same day to say he would be having a meeting with Glencore\u2019s partners that weekregarding the float and \u201cyou joining our company as the chairman\u201d.<\/p>\n

On 10 April the following year, Epstein asked Mandelson for an update on progress with Glencore, prompting the response: \u201cNo word\u201d.<\/p>\n

Days later, the former French foreign legionnaire Simon Murray was unveiled as chair.<\/p>\n

Sources familiar with the selection process indicated that, in fact, Mandelson had never been in with a chance of chairing Glencore during the flotation.<\/p>\n

However, Mandelson did go on to secure a role for his own company, Global Counsel, providing Glencore with \u201cstrategic advice\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former Labour peer, who once said he was \u201cintensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich\u201d, followed his former boss Tony Blair by taking paid work for Glencore.<\/p>\n

Blair is thought to have earned more than \u00a3250,000 in 2012 for a cameo role, lasting just hours, in helping to negotiate a settlement between Glencore and the Qatari state to secure a \u00a345bn merger with Xstrata.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has approached Mandelson for comment. Glencore and BP<\/a> declined to comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Mandelson #sought #Epsteins #hunt #lucrative #roles #Glencore #Peter #Mandelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Mandelson began seeking … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}