Peter Mandelson arrested in London

Peter Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the United States and a longtime Labour powerbroker, was arrested in London on Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, according to the Evening Standard. The Metropolitan Police said the 72-year-old was taken to a police station for interview after searches at addresses in Camden and Wiltshire.

The allegation, as described by the Standard, is not a new criminal category but an old one: a public official suspected of abusing the access that comes with office. In this case, investigators are looking at whether Mandelson passed sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier whose network has continued to generate criminal and political fallout years after his death. The Cabinet Office, the Standard reports, referred material to police after an initial review suggested that “safeguards were compromised”.

The documents now driving the case were not uncovered by a parliamentary inquiry or a UK disclosure process, but by a US Department of Justice release of Epstein-related files. According to Infobae, the dump includes emails that appear to show Mandelson forwarding internal political and policy assessments during the 2009–2010 period, including references to an “asset sales plan”, a possible bankers’ bonus tax, and the timing of euro-area rescue measures. Infobae also reports alleged payments of $25,000 from Epstein-linked accounts in 2003–2004, though the UK investigation described publicly centres on misuse of office rather than sexual offences.

The mechanics matter because the underlying commodity is not money but privileged information. In markets, early access is an edge; in politics, it is a bargaining chip. Governments routinely brief favoured actors—banks, large employers, lobby groups—on policy direction, then call it “stakeholder engagement”. What makes this case prosecutable is the suspicion that the channel was private, the recipient was toxic, and the information was not meant to travel.

The timing also shows how reputational risk is managed inside institutions. Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, Infobae notes, became a public issue in earlier reporting that he stayed in contact after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. Yet he was still appointed to Washington in late 2024, and only after new material surfaced did he step down from roles in the House of Lords and the Labour Party. Political systems tolerate a certain level of scandal as long as the cost is contained; once it becomes a liability that spreads to other offices, it is cheaper to cut the person loose than to keep defending the decision.

On Monday, television footage showed a plain-clothes officer leading Mandelson out of a Camden property and into an unmarked police car. The Met’s statement did not name Epstein, but it did confirm the offence under investigation: misconduct in public office.