Sir Keir Starmer is facing accusations of breaching the ministerial code after it emerged that an undeclared visit to the Washington headquarters of defence technology firm Palantir — a company that was simultaneously a client of Lord Mandelson’s lobbying firm — was never logged on his official transparency returns.
The Prime Minister and Lord Mandelson attended the meeting at Palantir’s Washington DC offices on 27 February 2025, while Mandelson was serving as Britain’s ambassador to the United States. The visit, which involved a presentation on the company’s work followed by an office tour, was also attended by Britain’s defence attaché to the US, 11 defence personnel and other British officials. Palantir later published a LinkedIn post confirming the visit, which read: “Living the Special Relationship: Palantir hosted UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at our Washington DC office.”
Despite being a matter of public record, the visit was not included on Starmer’s ministerial transparency returns, while other engagements from the same trip were. The ministerial code requires ministers to publish details of meetings with external organisations, and breaking it is widely regarded as a resignation offence.
The political stakes are made significantly higher by the financial interests involved. Palantir was a client of Global Counsel — the lobbying firm Lord Mandelson co-founded in 2010 — at the time of the visit. Mandelson retained a substantial shareholding in Global Counsel when he took up the ambassadorial role, placing the shares in a blind trust while he sold them down gradually. His financial stake in the firm meant he potentially stood to benefit from business won by Global Counsel clients, including Palantir, which later in 2025 secured a five-year £750 million Ministry of Defence contract.
The Government’s defence is that the visit did not constitute a formal meeting. Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds described it as “not a formal meeting” in response to parliamentary questions. Downing Street has characterised it as a “routine visit” conducted in line with standard practice, pointing to guidance that says visits, tours and seminars are not automatically classed as meetings unless ministers actively engage on matters of government business.
That distinction, however, was flatly contradicted by defence minister Luke Pollard, who in response to a separate parliamentary question acknowledged it was a meeting — albeit one for which no formal record was produced.
Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart said the discrepancy was damning. “A presentation by a defence contractor, attended with British military personnel, took place and was not declared,” he told The Telegraph. “Calling it ‘not a meeting’ does not make it disappear.” Burghart is now calling on Scotland Yard to widen its existing investigation into Lord Mandelson to include potential misconduct connected to the Palantir visit. He added: “The public deserves to know who arranged this meeting, what was discussed, and what Global Counsel’s client stood to gain.”
Palantir said the visit was “a typical government visit to a UK employer, organised by officials in the usual way,” adding that no future contract was discussed during the technology demonstrations and that its latest MoD contract had first been discussed before Mandelson became ambassador and was signed more than three months after he was dismissed.
The revelation lands at the worst possible moment for Starmer, who is already fighting to hold on to the premiership following the Mandelson vetting scandal. Cabinet loyalists have turned on him, he faces a potentially heavy defeat at next month’s local elections, and polling by Ipsos for Global found that 50 per cent of the public now believe he should resign, compared with 36 per cent who think he should continue.
Internal Labour plotting over his succession is also intensifying. Supporters of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham have reportedly identified a number of northern MPs willing to stand aside to trigger by-elections that could return him to Westminster, while sources suggest some members of the party’s National Executive Committee — which previously blocked Burnham from standing as an MP — are now “really disgusted” by Starmer’s handling of the Mandelson affair and would no longer obstruct his path.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is expected to decide as early as Monday whether to allow MPs to debate referring Starmer to the privileges committee for potential contempt of Parliament.
