British police arrest Epstein-linked ex-ambassador Mandelson | Police News

Former top Labour Party official Peter Mandelson is being probed for suspected ‘misconduct in public office’.

Embattled former UK Ambassador Peter Mandelson has been detained as part of a misconduct investigation into his ties with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The former official, who was a major figure in the United Kingdom’s Labour Party for decades and previously served as ambassador to the United States, was taken away from his home in London by authorities on Monday.

Without directly naming Mandelson in keeping with its policy, the Metropolitan Police confirmed a 72-year-old man had been arrested “on suspicion of misconduct in public office” and taken to a London police station to be questioned.

Photos published by the UK’s The Times newspaper appeared to show Mandelson wearing khakis, a grey sweater, and a dark jacket while being led into a vehicle by a plainclothes officer.

“This is absolutely seismic political news,” reported Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull from London, noting Mandelson “is an enormous figure here”.

There was no immediate response from Mandelson’s lawyers.

Mandelson, 72, who still holds the British title of “Lord”, has been engulfed in scandal since a trove of emails released by the United States Department of Justice last month shed new light on his connection with the late Epstein.

The emails revealed that the two shared a closer relationship than had been publicly known, and that Mandelson shared information with Epstein when he was a minister in former Prime ⁠Minister Gordon Brown’s government.

Earlier this month, Mandelson – who was fired as ambassador to the US last year over earlier revelations about his relationship with Epstein – resigned from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and quit his ⁠position in Parliament’s upper chamber.

He previously ⁠said he “very deeply” regretted his past association with convicted sex trafficker Epstein.

Mandelson’s arrest comes less than a week after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of Britain’s King Charles III,  was also arrested for questioning as part of a similar probe stemming from his ties to Epstein.

The UK government is now weighing legislation to strip the former prince from the royal line of succession, causing his ties to the royal family to be “all but decimated”, said Hull. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any wrongdoing.

The UK’s Epstein fallout is also putting further pressure on Starmer, who has faced some calls to step down.

“What this will do is add yet more political scandal, political drama and political weight to the position that Starmer finds himself in,” said Hull. “It appears as if the fallout from the Epstein scandal is being more keenly felt here than on the other side of the Atlantic – where, of course, Epstein lived and came from.”