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Lawyers for Lord Peter Mandelson have criticised the police for arresting the former cabinet minister on Monday after what they described as a “baseless suggestion that he was planning to leave the country”.
Mandelson was released on bail in the early hours of Tuesday after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following claims he leaked confidential UK government memos to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Metropolitan Police this month launched a criminal investigation into Mandelson, who was business secretary and de facto deputy prime minister in 2009 and 2010, after it said it had received a number of complaints, including a referral from the UK government.
Mishcon de Reya, the law firm representing Mandelson, said in a statement on Tuesday evening: “Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday despite an agreement with the police that he would attend an interview next month on a voluntary basis.
“The arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion that he was planning to leave the country and take up permanent residence abroad. There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion.”
It added: “We have asked the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] for the evidence relied upon to justify the arrest. Peter Mandelson’s overriding priority is to co-operate with the police investigation, as he has done throughout this process, and to clear his name.”
The Met had been planning to interview Mandelson under caution over the next fortnight but their plans were accelerated on Monday after a tip that he might leave the country.
Mandelson told friends after his release in the early hours of Tuesday that the police had claimed he was about to flee to the British Virgin Islands, leaving his husband, family home and dog, according to The Times newspaper.
“I need hardly say complete fiction . . . the question is, who or what is behind this?” the peer told friends.
Mandelson’s high-profile arrest marked a dramatic fall from grace for a politician credited as one of the architects of New Labour alongside Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
He served at the highest levels of the British government, including as a cabinet minister, European trade commissioner and last year as UK ambassador to the US.
Mandelson’s stint as UK envoy to Washington ended in September when he was sacked by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after leaked emails showed the extent of his friendship with Epstein.
The latest tranche of the so-called Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice in January showed that Mandelson passed government information to the sex offender in 2009 and 2010.
This included details of a €500bn EU bailout of the Eurozone and a Downing Street memo setting out plans for a £20bn asset sale and tax changes.
In 2010 Mandelson, while a minister, also lobbied the US government on behalf of Epstein and JPMorgan’s Jes Staley to try to soften banking reforms after the global financial crash.
Other emails published by the justice department showed Epstein sent Mandelson $75,000 in total in 2003 and 2004. Epstein also sent thousands of pounds in 2009 and 2010 to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, who was Mandelson’s partner at the time and is now his husband, the FT revealed.
Mandelson has said he has no recollection of receiving the $75,000, although he belatedly confirmed Epstein’s payments to Da Silva.
Ministers, aides and officials are bracing for the political fallout from the release of tens of thousands of documents relating to Mandelson and his appointment as US ambassador.
The first tranche of those papers would be released in early March, Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, said on Monday, although he was unable to say when the entire batch of documents would be published in full.