THE SNP have demanded the Prime Minister's independent ethics adviser investigate whether Douglas Alexander has broken the ministerial code.
The party's Westminster leader Dave Doogan has written to Sir Laurie Magnus, the prime minister's independent adviser on ministerial standards, asking for an "urgent investigation" into Alexander's conduct after files showed Peter Mandelson introduced him to a lobbying firm he set up with links to Russia and China and this was not declared.
Papers released earlier this week showed that Mandelson, who was sacked as UK ambassador to the US last year over his links with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, introduced Alexander to contacts in the Global Counsel lobbying firm he co-founded in 2010.
Mandelson resigned from its board in 2024, but continued to own shares.
An email sent when Alexander was a trade minister in the UK Government showed him thanking Mandelson for the introduction.
It also emerged that Alexander's first meeting as trade minister was with Global Counsel, in the form of an online call. The BBC reports that this meeting was only added to public transparency logs earlier this year.
Alexander and Mandelson exchanged messages on July 22, with the disgraced peer writing an email introduction putting Alexander in touch with someone from Global Counsel. A week later, on July 31, the meeting was held.
The letter from Doogan states: "Despite clear obligations and processes to transparently log ministerial meetings, Mr Alexander failed to publicly declare this meeting with Peter Mandelson's lobbying firm for a year and a half.
"Natural suspicion and concern about the failure to declare this meeting is also amplified by the fact that Mandelson's lobbying firm had well known links to Chinese state organisations and sanction-hit Russian oligarchs.
"These links were all red flagged as areas of concern shortly before he took up his post as the UK's ambassador to the US."
SNP previously called for Alexander to be sacked as Scottish Secretary after "gushing" WhatsApp messages revealed Mandelson helped him get selected as a Labour Party candidate in the 2024 General Election.
The files showed Alexander was in regular contact with Mandelson ahead of his appointment as the UK's ambassador to the US, despite it being a matter of public record at the time that Mandelson had maintained his friendship with Epstein after his conviction for paedophilia and sex offences.
