British police have arrested the country’s former ambassador to the U.S. has following weeks of revelations over his relationship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Peter Mandelson was detained amid an intensifying scandal after the U.S. Department of Justice released millions of Epstein-related documents, some of which appear to show him leaking sensitive political and market information to the late financier.
Video on Sky News showed Mandelson being led from his home in north London wearing a grey sweater and black coat.
London’s Metropolitan Police said in a news release that it was an update on an investigation into misconduct in public office offenses “relating to a former government minister.”
“Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office,” the force said in a statement, adding that he had been taken to be interviewed at a London police station. The statement did not name Mandelson, as is standard practice under British law.
“This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas,” it said, referring to a county around 100 miles to the west of London, and an area in the north of the U.K.’s capital.
Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein.
As part of the Epstein files, emails from 2009 appear to show him passing on an assessment of potential policy measures. He also appeared to discuss a planned tax on bankers’ bonuses and confirm an imminent bailout package for the euro before it was announced.
On Feb. 6, police searched two properties linked to Mandelson, who served as Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. between February and September 2025. Days earlier, the longtime political grandee who had a reputation as a ruthless political fixer, had stepped down as a member of the House of Lords.
Mandelson’s arrest comes less than a week after the former Prince Andrew was himself arrested on the same offense. The royal was later released “under investigation,” meaning he was neither charged nor exonerated.
Stripped of his royal titles and now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, he was later pictured as he was driven away from Aylsham Police Station in Norfolk, roughly 50 miles from the Sandringham Estate where he now lives.
Mountbatten-Windsor, who turned 66 on Thursday, the day of his arrest, has always denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
Mandelson began working for Britain’s Labour Party in the 1980s and rose to become a major figure, playing a key role in Tony Blair’s landslide election victory in 1997.
He was forced to resign from Blair’s cabinet twice, first over an undeclared bank loan and then after he intervened in a passport application by an foreign businessman.
Mandelson was later made business secretary by Gordon Brown who would go on to appoint him to the House of Lords in 2008.
It was known that he had a friendship with Epstein prior to the U.S. ambassadorial appointment by current Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
After Mandelson was accused of passing sensitive information to the disgraced financier, the scandal ramped up the pressure on Starmer’s government, already weakened by record-low approval ratings, policy U-turns and cost-of-living pressures.
Earlier this month, Starmer said Mandelson had “lied repeatedly” about the extent of his past contact with Epstein.
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