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Police investigating Lord Peter Mandelson for possible misconduct in public office raided two of his homes on Friday, increasing the legal threat to the veteran Labor politician and Britain’s former ambassador to the US.
Hayley Siewert, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said officers from the force’s central specialist crime team carried out search warrants at addresses in Wiltshire and Camden, north London.
“This search is related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office crimes involving a 72-year-old man,” he said. “He has not been arrested and the investigation is ongoing.”
The Met confirmed on Tuesday it was investigating whether Mandelson, 72, had committed misconduct in public office after receiving multiple reports, including one from the UK government.
Mandelson is accused of passing sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein while serving as Business Secretary and de facto Deputy Prime Minister under Gordon Brown.
Mandelson has not commented since the force confirmed it was investigating him.
News of the police raid comes as government ministers and advisers are preparing to hand over WhatsApp messages, text and email exchanges with Mandelson relating to his appointment as UK ambassador to Washington, in a data dump expected to deepen Sir Keir Starmer’s crisis.
The Cross-Party Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has Wrote to Starmer Adding that he hoped the relevant information would be handed over to Parliament “very soon”, creating a “Mandelson Files” cache of potentially embarrassing documents.
Government officials estimate they may have to release up to 100,000 documents related to Mandelson, including email chains and copied messages to the former ambassador.
The Prime Minister believes some exchanges related to Mandelson’s investigation into the US job will support his claim that the former ambassador “lied” about his relationship with Epstein.
But other messages sent between Mandelson and Starmer’s team may be more problematic. Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s critical chief of staff, supported Mandelson for the job and was in close contact with him during his stay in Washington last year.
Asked about a timeline for the release of the Mandelson files, a spokesman for Starmer said on Friday: “It is important that the documents are made available to Parliament as soon as possible. We are in the process of collecting the large amount of documents required.”
He added: “In the meantime, the government is also working with the police, and it is important not to jeopardize their investigation.”
According to the ISC, Starmer is being forced to hand over a much wider range of messages than he wished, including “electronic communications and minutes of all meetings held between Lord Mandelson and ministers, government officials and special advisers during his tenure as ambassador”.
Those deemed by the government to be so sensitive that they cannot be released because they concern national security or international relations will be handed over to the ISC for investigation.
Some of Mandelson’s private exchanges could particularly strain Britain’s relations with Donald Trump if they paint the US president in a bad light.
The ISC, a panel of cross-party MPs and peers, told Starmer that it would act “completely independently of the government” and added: “We reserve the right to determine how to deal with the material shown to us.”
Starmer wanted the head of the civil service, Sir Chris Wormald, to decide which sensitive documents should be released, but rebel Labor MPs forced him to hand the job to the ISC.
Starmer apologized on Thursday for appointing Mandelson as ambassador in December 2024 despite knowing about his friendship with Epstein, but a growing number of Labor MPs angry over his handling of the scandal said the prime minister’s time in Number 10 was coming to an end.
As well as Starmer and McSweeney, the trove of documents is likely to be deeply embarrassing to others in the government who were previously close to Mandelson, including Wes Streeting, the health secretary and Starmer’s potential successor.
James Lyons, the Prime Minister’s former communications director, said the Mandelson revelations were “at least the biggest scandal since the expenses scandal” in 2009, when The Daily Telegraph published leaked data showing how MPs claimed public money for questionable expenses.
“I don’t think anyone can underestimate the seriousness of the situation,” he told the BBC. “I think we might as well be here in the foothills.”
