Mandelson under fire over meeting with Russian billionaire

The Business Secretary admitted that a statement by officials in his former office in Brussels saying he had not met Deripaska until 2006 was wrong, and they had actually first met in 2004.

The revelation placed fresh pressure on the Labour peer last night, as it confirms that Mandelson, then European trade commissioner, met Deripaska before he signed off a decision to remove a 14.9% EU tariff on aluminium foil – a move of huge benefit to the Russian.

The new developments come after a week in which Deripaska has been thrust to the forefront of British politics, with claims that Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne had attempted to extract a donation from the billionaire.

Tory sources are now claiming the Osborne story was deliberately revealed to push Mandelson's own connections to Deripaska – who was last night linked to powerful Russian mafia figure Anton Malevsky – to one side.

In a letter published yesterday, Mandelson said: "

To the best of my recollection we first met in 2004 and I met him several times subsequently."

However, Mandelson pointed out that the European Commission's director general for trade David O'Sullivan had publicly stated that Mandelson made "no personal intervention to support the commercial interests of Mr Deripaska" in the decision on tariffs. "Naturally I met a great number of businesspeople round the world as EC trade commissioner. I think this adds to what I bring to my job now," he wrote.

Yesterday, it also emerged that Mandelson is leading a four-day trade delegation to the Russian capital from today, and the aluminium magnate's name had been withdrawn from a list of those to be invited to a British Embassy drinks reception.

And last night Mandelson's links with big business while trade commissioner were the subject of a complaint to the European Commission. A pressure group named Corporate Europe Observatory has called for an investigation into the "undue influence" exercised over EU policy by business.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker has also called for Mandelson to provide further details. He said:

"He must publish a full list of each meeting detailing where these meetings were and what was discussed."

Top Scottish Conservative linked to aluminium tycoon

A TOP Scottish Tory has links with Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

Scottish Conservatives chairman Andrew Fulton is chair of a corporate investigations firm that carries out work on behalf of the multi-billionaire. The firm, GPW, has run investigations on behalf of Deripaska's UK lawyers.

Fulton and his associates last night pointed out they had never met Deripaska or had personal dealings with him.

The chair of the Tories was an MI6 spy before taking on the party role and works part-time advising businesses such as GPW on their work.

He served in East Berlin, Washington, Saigon and New York during a 30-year career with the diplomatic service.

GPW's head Patrick Grayson said: "We have been retained for one-off pieces of work by his lawyers. They employ literally dozens of firms like ours. Nobody here has even met Mr Deripaska, however."

GPW is employed to ensure a client's confidence in business decisions and manage corporate risk by gathering intelligence on key competitors. The company advises on hostile bids, shareholder disputes, boardroom clashes and maliciously targeted allegations.

It also investigates fraud and bribery and gathers intelligence in support of dispute resolution.

Nicholas Christian