A member of the House of Lords asked a senior British diplomat to help a Ghanaian goldmining venture in which he held shares, claiming it was “in the UK national interest”, the Guardian can disclose.
The revelation will add to concerns about apparent breaches of parliamentary lobbying rules by Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army. The peer is already under scrutiny over his lobbying for several companies, leading in two cases to investigations by the Lords’ standards body.
Lord Dannatt, an unpaid senior adviser to Blue International, sought help from the high commissioner for Ghana in January 2024 on behalf of the company’s Ghanaian subsidiary, Future Global Resources.
The latest disclosure raises new questions about whether the peer breached parliamentary rules by seeking diplomatic assistance for the investment firm, which is focused on west Africa.
At the time, the company was facing financial difficulties at its Bogoso-Prestea mine and was at risk of losing the right to operate the mine, by far its largest asset.
Documents disclosed under freedom of information laws show that on 22 January 2024 Dannatt wrote to Harriet Thompson, then the high commissioner for Ghana, seeking her help.
“Please excuse an unsolicited email but I am writing to ask for some assistance on a commercial matter that, although beneficial for the company concerned, is in the UK national interest,” he wrote.
Dannatt said Blue International, in which he held 10,461 shares, was “at a critical juncture” because it was planning a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. He said this would require support from the Ghanaian minister of land, which he believed was likely to be forthcoming. But he warned that the company faced “very serious opposition from other quarters”.
Dannatt then asked to arrange a video conference call with Thompson “to seek your advice and input on their next steps”.
The peer told the Guardian that he had “always sought to abide by the letter and the spirit of all rules and in regard to the matters under discussion believed that I was doing so”.
He said he had always declared any of his interests when engaging with ministers or officials, and said any proceeds from his shares would be donated to charity.
“Moreover, I note that ministers and officials were content to engage with me on the issues I raised and invariably thanked me for bringing matters to their attention,” he added.
Dannatt said the call with Thompson, arranged at the request of one of the directors of Blue International and Future Global Resources, did take place.
“At the time the company’s commercial attempts to reopen the Bogoso-Prestea mine were being frustrated, against the best interests of the local employees, by those from another country outside Africa which also had designs on the mine,” he said.
“At the meeting, my role was to introduce the director, outline the apparent problem and leave it to the others to discuss the way forward.”
Dannatt’s appeal for help from the diplomatic corps appears to have resulted in UK government intervention.
“Following the online meeting, I have seen in subsequent emails that the British high commissioner and some of her staff followed up the issues raised at the meeting with the appropriate Ghanian authorities, with a satisfactory outcome,” he told the Guardian.
The Foreign Office disclosed that Thompson paid a “courtesy call” to Ghana’s attorney general and director of public prosecutions in March 2025 but details of the meeting were redacted.
Dannatt’s intervention on behalf of Blue International appears to have breached parliamentary lobbying rules, which state that members must not “seek to profit from membership of the house by accepting or agreeing to accept payment or other incentive or reward in return for providing parliamentary advice or services”.
Guidance attached to the code, provided to all members of the house, states that peers should “not accept, or agree to accept, payment or other reward in return for doing or not doing something in the performance of their parliamentary duties”.
Such duties include “all types of interaction with members of either house, ministers or officials”.
A director of Blue International said Dannatt had provided “political advice” to the company.
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Asked why he had told the British high commission that intervention was in the national interest, Dannatt said an official from the commission had “expressed his appreciation that raising this issue has resulted in the sustenance of a UK mining initiative in the region”.
Dannatt’s shares in the company are now publicly tradable, after Blue International completed a $114.5m combination with a US “blank cheque” investment firm, relaunching the mining venture under the name Blue Gold in a deal that was completed in June.
There are significant question marks over the likely value of the shares. The Ghanaian government has revoked the company’s lease at the Bogoso-Prestea mine, one of the largest gold mines in the country. The matter is subject to international arbitration.
Dannatt said he did not know the value of his shares. He said he acquired them when Blue International was working on a now defunct hydroelectric project in Sierra Leone and he intended to donate any proceeds from them to Street Child, a charity founded by his son.
Mark Green, a director of Blue International, said he had already been in touch with the British high commission before Dannatt’s involvement and had asked the peer to join a call to “help provide political advice as that has been his role for us”.
“Richard has never asked or intimated for anything in return,” he said. “He is on our advisory board, at our request, in order to give us advice and help us in political situations.”
Green said Dannatt’s advice would help “protect the interest of British taxpayers”.
In early 2024 it emerged that the Treasury had lent Blue International £3.3m of taxpayers’ money via the “Future Fund” the previous year. The Future Fund was designed to help “startups and innovative firms” survive the pandemic by extending them loans that converted into equity.
Dannatt’s lobbying activity has come under scrutiny several times this year. He is under investigation by the House of Lords authorities over two sets of allegations.
The first followed undercover filming by the Guardian during which he offered to secure meetings with ministers for a potential commercial client. He said his conduct, which emerged as part of the Guardian’s Lords debate investigation, had not broken Lords rules.
He is also under investigation after he lobbied the government to get financial support worth millions of pounds for a commercial deal he was steering, documents reveal. He said he was not paid and was helping a friend.
Earlier this month the Guardian revealed that he had urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at the request of a US defence company that employs him as an adviser.
Court transcripts of the subsequent trial of one Palestine activist, obtained by the Guardian, reveal allegations heard in court that Dannatt sought to influence the police’s investigation of the protest.
Dannatt said he was completely unaware of the exchanges in the trial and that allegations he was “seeking to influence” a live criminal case were “baseless”.