Peter Mandelson has been arrested by detectives investigating claims he committed misconduct in public office during his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Video footage showed the former British ambassador to the US being driven away from his home in an unmarked police car for questioning shortly after being escorted from his home by plainclothes officers.
The Metropolitan police have been investigating allegations that he leaked Downing Street emails and market-sensitive information to the disgraced US financier during his time as business secretary. Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing.
His arrest, coming days before a crucial byelection in Gorton and Denton, will be an uncomfortable reminder of what critics say is one of Keir Starmer’s worst lapses of judgment in office: his decision to appoint him to Washington.
The prime minister has apologised to Epstein’s victims for choosing Mandelson, saying the former Labour peer had lied about the extent of his relationship with the late sex offender, and was sacked when that became known.
But Starmer has faced deep anger from his own MPs over the decision which again pushed his authority over his party to the brink and led to the departure of his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.
Mandelson’s arrest also comes days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor became the first royal to be taken into police custody in modern times. Emails appeared to show the former prince sharing confidential information with the Epstein while working as a British trade envoy.
Thames Valley police, which is investigating Mountbatten-Windsor, said searches of Royal Lodge in Windsor, where the king’s brother used to live, had continued into a fifth day. A search of his current home on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, concluded on Thursday.
Downing Street has been compelled to release documents linked to Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in December 2024 to parliament’s intelligence and security committee to ensure maximum transparency about the vetting process and what the government knew about his friendship with Epstein.
MPs were told on Monday that the first tranche of tens of thousands of documents would be released in early March, but would not include exchanges between Starmer and Mandelson on his connections to Epstein until the police investigation had been completed.
Mandelson was led to a waiting car by detectives without being placed in handcuffs.
Mettropolitan police officers investigating him have had discussions with lawyers from the special crime division of the Crown Prosecution Service, which authorises criminal prosecutions in England and Wales.
The discussions so far are described as informal, and no formal early investigative advice has been sought or offered.
The CPS’s special crime division is also the part of the prosecution service that would consider the misconduct in public office case against Mountbatten-Windsor.
After Mandelson was pictured leaving his north London home on Monday, a police spokesperson said: “Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
“He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday 23 February and has been taken to a London police station for interview. This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas.”
A police investigation was opened earlier this month after the release of files related to the late disgraced financier. Mandelson is understood to believe he has not committed any offence.
At the time, Met deputy assistant commissioner Hayley Sewart said: “This will be a complex investigation requiring a significant amount of further evidence-gathering and analysis. It will take some time to do this work comprehensively.”
The revelations about Mandelson’s links to Epstein have already put Starmer under intense pressure. The prime minister acknowledged he knew – as had been reported widely in the media – that Mandelson and Epstein were in contact after Epstein was jailed in 2008 for child sex offences.
The allegations of misconduct in public office surfaced after the US Department of Justice’s release of millions of documents related to Epstein last month. Emails from 2009 appear to show Mandelson, then business secretary passing on a confidential assessment of potential policy measures by an adviser to Gordon Brown, who was prime minister at the time.
Mandelson, who had previously been sacked twice from government, also appeared to discuss a tax on bankers’ bonuses and confirm an imminent bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010.
Mandelson, the grandson of the former Labour home and foreign secretary Herbert Morrison, has been a significant figure in the Labour party for five decades. He was selected as the party’s candidate for the safe seat of Hartlepool in 1990, winning it in the 1992 general election.
An early backer of Tony Blair, he was seen as one of the key architects of New Labour and became the director of Labour’s landslide 1997 general election campaign before being handed various roles in government.
The Epstein revelations and resulting furore led him to quit the Labour party. He also resigned from the House of Lords.
Global Counsel, the consultancy he co-founded in 2010, collapsed into administration after a number of clients cut ties with the company over the former ambassador’s relationship with Epstein.
The Guardian
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