PETER MANDELSON, Britain’s ambassador to Washington, embarrassed Keir Starmer’s government by demanding Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky should give “unequivocal backing” to Donald Trump’s “peace” plan directly after Trump humiliated Zelensky in public.

But Mandelson’s outburst was completely consistent with his general approach of agreeing with the most powerful men in the room — especially US presidents — and seeing Putin’s Russia as a business opportunity, not a dangerous authoritarian government.

After Trump mauled Zelensky in the Oval Office, Starmer and other European leaders made a show of supporting the Ukrainian president. But Mandelson told ABC News that Zelensky should be “giving his unequivocal backing to the initiative that President Trump is taking to end the war.”

Mandelson also said Ukraine should unilaterally call its own ceasefire even if Russia did not cease firing. Starmer’s government scuttled out junior Defence Minister Luke Pollard to say this was “not government policy,” a limp response dressed up as a “slapping down” by friendly press.

But Mandelson pushing at the edge of British policy in this way was predictable. Mandelson, who was a minister under Tony Blair, has always pushed Labour to take the side of the rich and powerful, especially US presidents.

When Mandelson was a minister, that meant trying to persuade other Labour ministers they should favour Enron, a US energy firm being promoted by Republican president George W Bush.

Enron turned out to be a criminal corporation. Enron’s CEO was jailed after their collapse. People should have stopped listening to Mandelson’s advice then, but didn’t. Mandelson’s Enron enthusiasm shows his siding openly with Trump is no surprise.

After leaving government, Mandelson built a business career, including founding corporate lobbying company Global Counsel in 2010. That career involved much focus on doing business with Putin’s Russia; Mandelson is even less likely than most government figures to view a friendly deal with Russia as shameful or awkward.

Mandelson was allowed to become Britain’s man-in-Washington while still owning shares in Global Counsel, a firm that offered clients “advice on Russian market entry” for years, although the Foreign Office suggested he would reduce his shareholding over time.

Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine began on February 24 2022. Global Counsel reacted to the invasion on March 4 2022 by holding a “webinar” with advice suggesting investors might lose out if they quit Russia over that invasion.

The “webinar” was hosted by Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Global Counsel’s chief executive who founded the firm alongside Mandelson. Wegg-Prosser has worked with Mandelson since before 1998 and was Blair’s comms director from 2005 to 2007.

The main speaker was Chris Weafer, a former banker for Russia’s Sberbank who now runs Macro Advisory, a Moscow-based firm offering advice to “investors and companies interested in Russia.” Weafer passed on a warning from Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin about firms considering leaving Russia to Global Counsel’s audience; Mishustin said: “It’s a lot easier to leave than it is to come back.”

Weafer seemed to endorse what he described as a “statement” not “a threat,” saying: “In other words, if you are a big company doing well in Russia and you leave now say because of reputational risk and in a couple of years you want to come back then you may not be able to,” and suggested many Western firms in Russia might “ride it out” for “three months, six months, whatever, then resume business in Russia.”

The sooner Ukraine is pushed to sign a peace deal with Russia — whether it is unfair to Ukraine or not — the sooner Global Counsel clients can get back into Russia.

Global Counsel’s involvement in Russian investment mirrors Mandelson’s own past business experience. Until June 2017 Mandelson was personally a director of Sistema, an oligarch-owned Russian industrial conglomerate with defence interests which was sanctioned by Britain and the US after Russia’s 2024 Ukraine invasion.

Mandelson was a long-standing friend of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. A 2020 Guardian investigation based on leaked documents showed in 2015-16 Global Counsel helped gig-economy taxi firm Uber build Russian business as Mandelson “used his access to pro-Kremlin oligarchs, including some now under sanctions.” This was after Russia had invaded Crimea.

Mandelson’s friendship with now-sanctioned Kremlin-friendly oligarch Oleg Deripaska was key to putting Uber in touch with firms like now-sanctioned state-owned bank Sberbank.

Mandelson demanding Zelensky fold to Trump’s demands reflects his own political approach but may well also reflect British government policy. Starmer has set out to mend the personal insults to Zelensky by embracing him on the steps of No 10 and ensuring he meets King Charles.

But Starmer’s overall policy is to try to push Ukraine towards a land-for-peace deal like Trump’s. Mandelson may have simply been too arrogant to quietly back this policy, preferring to put himself at the centre of the drama by blurting it out.

Operation Replace Starmer is coming

OPERATION Replace Starmer began bubbling up this January. It’s not an operation from the left — expulsions, suspensions and fixed MP selections mean the left doesn’t have the strength to undermine the PM. But careerist MPs, looking at Labour freefalling in the polls down to 25 per cent, behind Reform, worry they will lose their jobs.

Operation Replace Starmer is temporarily suspended as friendly pundits claim Starmer will get a “Falklands factor” boost over Ukraine. But if he doesn’t (he won’t), if a new round of welfare spending cuts drives polling down again, and if there is a bad result in the May elections, then the operation will restart.

The Daily Mail laid out some runners and riders in January, saying likely contenders are Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner and — surprisingly — Bridget Phillipson. The Mail’s pro-Streeting sources admitted his “hopes of succeeding Sir Keir would depend on changing the rules on how leaders are elected — by excluding party members from having a vote and leaving it just to MPs while in government.”

A Labour membership vote more likely favours Angela Rayner because members don’t like Labour’s rightward rush any more than voters. So there is also a parallel operation to discourage Rayner from tacking left should she run.

It is not impossible that a leadership challenge against Starmer will open in late 2025 or 2026. If so, the left will have to decide how to negotiate a new challenge to Labour’s leadership, but one where they do not have their own candidate.

Follow Solomon on X @SolHughesWriter.