British police arrested former Labour minister Peter Mandelson on Monday to be questioned on suspicion of misconduct in public office, for allegedly providing sensitive official information to the deceased convicted American pedophile and multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Scotland Yard specified in a statement that it arrested a 72-year-old man at his home in the London borough of Camden—without providing his name—but the BBC showed live the moment Mandelson, also a former UK ambassador to the United States, got into an unmarked police car. The Metropolitan Police of London stated that Mandelson's detention, transferred to a police station, occurred following searches carried out in recent days at two properties: one in the British capital and another in the English county of Wiltshire. Mandelson, who was minister in previous Labour governments and European Trade Commissioner from 2004 to 2008, was appointed ambassador to Washington in February 2025 by current Prime Minister Keir Starmer and dismissed seven months later upon learning of the extent of his ties with Epstein. The release by the US administration of the so-called 'Epstein papers' revealed that the Labour politician sent the businessman in 2009 information about the intention of the government of then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown to sell public assets in response to the 2008 credit crisis. Additionally, in 2010, he informed him that the European Union was planning a rescue package for Greece to prevent its debt crisis from spreading to the entire eurozone. Mandelson's arrest comes after last Thursday the Thames Valley Regional Police also arrested King Charles III's brother, Prince Andrew, to question him on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The former Duke of York was subsequently released while the investigation continues. In his case, the authorities are seeking to determine whether the former duke, stripped of all his titles in October, committed crimes by sending government information to Epstein while serving as the UK government's trade envoy.
