A former No 10 aide has quit as chief executive of the influential lobbying firm he co-founded with Peter Mandelson following revelations from the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Ben Wegg-Prosser stepped down on Friday as the head of Global Counsel after emails revealed the extent to which he and Mandselson had involved the convicted child sex offender when they were setting up the company in 2010.

The fallout from the release of the files in the US has triggered a crisis at Global Counsel, which has had close ties to Labour and lobbied the government on behalf of clients including the controversial tech firm and government contractor Palantir.

The departure of Wegg-Prosser, formerly Tony Blair’s director of strategic communications at No 10, was communicated to clients on Friday by the firm as it fought to stave off damage from the scandal. One major client, Barclays, had already cut ties.

The company also told clients on Friday that it had reached an agreement for the divestment of Mandelson’s shares in the company and that the transaction would be completed later in the day subject to approvals. The peer left the company’s board two years ago when a company owned by the former Barack Obama adviser Jim Messina invested in it, but retained shares.

“The completion of this transaction will bring to an end any connection between Global Counsel and Peter Mandelson,” said its chair, Archie Norman.

“With the necessary progress being made on the divestment, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, founder andCEO of Global Counsel, has decided to step down,” said an email from Norman, who thanked Wegg-Prosser for his loyalty and commitment.

“Global Counsel is independently governed and led, and remains focused on delivering high-quality, independent advice to our clients.”

Global Counsel’s website on Friday listed Rebecca Park as its chief executive, with no reference to Wegg-Prosser. Park, who joined the company in 2021, was previously managing director of UK Finance, a bankers’ lobby group.

Company filings showed that Mandelson held 21% of the company’s shares as of 7 October 2025, while Wegg-Prosser held 29%. Park is expected to acquire Mandelson’s stake, the Financial Times reported.

The files also showed how Mandelson sought to land “highly paid” senior roles with companies including BP and Glencore after Labour’s general election defeat.

The hedge fund Rokos Capital Management on Thursday said it had “terminated” talks with Mandelson over an advisory role.

Emails from that period when Global Counsel was being formed show that Mandelson asked Epstein for advice on setting up the company. Others indicate that Epstein, by then already a convicted child sex offender, was being tapped up as part of the launch, with help being sought from him on getting clients.

An email from Mandelson in February 2010 told Epstein that Wegg-Prosser would be coming to New York to discuss the company’s business plan.

At other points, Wegg-Prosser himself directly emailed Epstein, on one occasion sending him a draft statement that the company was preparing to issue in anticipation of stories about Mandelson’s links to the financier.

The statement, which was shared with Epstein in a March 2011 email, sought to play down the depth of the two men’s relationship.

“Lord Mandelson was introduced to Mr Epstein a decade before by his then partner Ghislaine Maxwell who, along with her father and other members of her family, Lord Mandelson had known for many years before,” it read. The wording is at odds with what is now known to have been a much closer relationship between Epstein and Mandelson.

Sources close to the company’s then CEO say he was asked to pass on the quote and was effectively acting as a “secretary” for Mandelson.

After the release of the latest batch of Epstein files, Wegg-Prosser was present on Monday at a British-American parliamentary group reception at the Foreign Office, which was attended by several high-profile Labour MPs.

Last year, he was originally the top choice for Keir Starmer’s government as investment minister, but turned down the role for financial reasons. The government sought the lobbyist, an executive at the Guardian earlier in his career, to secure private capital to drive growth.

There is deep unease in Labour about how the controversy is placing a spotlight on the nexus of business interests that have become entwined with the party, with Global Counsel among companies hosting and staging events at the party’s annual conference.

Clive Lewis, a Labour backbencher, said the “authoritarian right” were likely to be among those seeking to benefit from the focus on the network of power and vested interests linked to Labour.

“I think there is a blind spot among many in the party to the sheer scale and depth and systematic transformation of it from being a workers’ party to being the second party of capital,” he said.

A Global Counsel spokesperson said: “Global Counsel was founded by Ben Wegg-Prosser with Peter Mandelson and with a founding investment from WPP plc in November 2010. Epstein never played any role in the establishment or ongoing business of Global Counsel.”

The emails show that Wegg-Prosser travelled to meet Epstein in New York in 2010– two years after the latter’s conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender – to discuss the business’s launch.

“Ben is coming to NYC to meet you and explain the business plan,” Mandelson wrote to Epstein before the visit. Mandelson himself sent Epstein an Excel spreadsheet of the company’s “lead list” – an apparent list of would-be customers.

Sources close to Wegg-Prosser say he met Epstein once 16 years ago for 25 minutes at the suggestion of Mandelson. “I had the misfortune to meet Epstein on one occasion. It was a short meeting of no consequence and thankfully was never to be repeated,” Wegg-Prosser has said in the past.