Mandelson's lawyers say he was arrested over 'baseless' claim he was a flight risk

Lord Mandelson's lawyers have said police officers arrested the former ambassador to the US at his London home on Monday afternoon because they worried he was a flight risk.

The peer's lawyers have told the BBC there is "absolutely no truth" in the suggestion that Lord Mandelson was planning to leave the UK and move abroad.

The Metropolitan Police has said it will not comment.

The former Labour minister was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office on Monday and later released on bail, pending further investigation.

A spokesperson for Mishcon De Reya, Lord Mandelson's lawyers, said: "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.

"We have asked the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] for the evidence relied upon to justify the arrest.

"Peter Mandelson's overriding priority is to cooperate with the police investigation, as he has done throughout this process, and to clear his name."

Lord Mandelson was arrested on Monday afternoon and taken to Wandsworth police station in London for interview.

He was at the police station for nine hours before being released on bail in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The force launched an investigation earlier this month over allegations that, while he was serving as a minister, Lord Mandelson had passed on market-sensitive government information to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The arrest on Monday followed search warrants at two addresses in Wiltshire and Camden.

The BBC understands that Lord Mandelson's position is he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain.

On Monday, Lord Mandelson was seen being led away from his London home by plain clothes officers who put him in the back of an unmarked car.

The BBC understands his arrest was carried out by officers from the Met's central specialist crime division.

Consultations between the police and the Crown Prosecution Service are ongoing.

The former Labour spin doctor has been a high profile figure in British politics for decades.

He began working for Labour in the 1980s, playing a key role in the New Labour movement and Sir Tony Blair's landslide election victory in 1997.

Lord Mandelson became the British ambassador to the US in February 2025 but was sacked in September after Downing Street said new information about the depth of his relationship with Epstein had emerged.

The allegations against Lord Mandelson surfaced after the US Department of Justice released a tranche of documents last month, including emails between him and Epstein.

An email from 2009 appears to show that Lord Mandelson passed on an assessment by an adviser to the then prime minister Gordon Brown about policy measures, including an "asset sales plan".

He also appeared to discuss a tax on bankers' bonuses and confirm an imminent bailout package for the Euro on the day before it was announced in 2010.