Peter Mandelson: Police detain Lord over alleged Epstein ties days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrest

UK police have made another high-profile arrest after the former British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Peter Mandelson, was taken into custody over his alleged ties to convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The London Metropolitan Police released a statement declaring it had arrested a man on “suspicion of misconduct in public office” just days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was taken into custody.

Images have emerged of the former Labour Party heavyweight and House of Lords member leaving his home in North London after detectives arrived to inform him of his arrest, before leading him away in a waiting car.

The 72-year-old was not wearing handcuffs and was cooperating with police.

Following Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest over his alleged ties to Epstein, Mandelson is being investigated for allegedly supplying sensitive government information to the convicted paedophile during his stint as a UK cabinet minister between 2008 and 2010.

Four days ago, police arrested and released the former prince Andrew, making a statement similar to the release surrounding Mandelson, saying “an unnamed man suspected of misconduct in public office” had been detained in an Epstein-related investigation.

Part of the police investigation into Mandelson surrounds information allegedly pass on to Epstein at the height of the global financial banking crisis and he is not facing any allegations of sexual misconduct.

Mandelson was fired from his diplomatic post in September after emails were published showing that he maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offences involving a minor AAP reports.

When more details emerged in documents released by the US Justice Department last month, police opened a criminal probe.

The Epstein files suggest that Mandelson passed on sensitive and potentially market-moving government information to Epstein in 2009, when Mandelson was a member of the then-government.

Officers subsequently searched Mandelson’s two houses in London and western England.

The decision to appoint Mandelson nearly cost UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer his job as questions swirled around his judgement in someone who has flirted with controversy during a decades-long political career.

Though he has acknowledged he made a mistake and apologised to victims of Epstein, Starmer’s position remains precarious.

His future may rest on the release of files connected to Mandelson’s appointment.

Mandelson has been a major, if contentious, figure in the centre-left Labour Party for decades.

He is a skilled critics say ruthless political operator whose mastery of political intrigue earned him the nickname “Prince of Darkness”.

The grandson of former Labour Cabinet minister Herbert Morrison, he was an architect of the party’s return to power in 1997 as centrist, modernising New Labour under Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mandelson served in senior government posts under Blair between 1997 and 2001, and under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010.

In between, he was the European Union’s trade commissioner.

Brown has been particularly angered by the revelations and has been helping police with their inquiries.

Mandelson twice had to resign from government during the Blair administration over allegations of financial or ethical impropriety, acknowledging mistakes but denying wrongdoing.

He later returned to government and was back on the political front line when Starmer named him ambassador to Washington at the start of US President Donald Trump’s second term.

Mandelson’s trade expertise and comfort around the ultra-rich were considered major assets.

He helped secure a trade deal in May that spared Britain some of the tariffs Trump has imposed on countries around the world.

The status of the deal is now up in the air after Trump announced a new set of global tariffs in the wake of a US Supreme Court decision quashing his previous import tax order.