Peter Mandelson Denies Plan To Flee The Country Amid Jeffrey Epstein Scandal
Lord Peter Mandelson has denied he planned to flee the UK over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that has destroyed his political career.
Lawyers for the disgraced former US ambassador said the “baseless” claim had led to his dramatic arrest over allegations he committed misconduct in a public office by passing government documents to the paedophile financier.
The former Labour peer was seen being led away from his north London home to an unmarked car by Metropolitan Police detectives on Monday afternoon.
Mandelson was questioned for nine hours before being released on bail in the early hours on Tuesday morning.
But in a dramatic development on Tuesday night, his law firm Mishcon de Reya said Mandelson had agreed to be questioned by police “on a voluntary basis” next month.
“The arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion that he was planning to leave the country and take up permanent residence abroad,” the lawyers said in a statement.
“There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion. We have asked the [Metropolitan Police] 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.”
On the News Agents podcast, Emily Maitlis read out details from a message she said Mandelson had sent to a fellow journalist following his release from custody.
In it, he said that “police arrested me because they claimed the Lord Speaker received information that I was about to flee to the British Virgin Islands,” and described this as “complete fiction”.
The Lord Speaker, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, denied claims that he had tipped off the police.
A spokesperson said: “Any suggestion at all that the Lord Speaker received information about Lord Mandelson’s movements or communicated any such information to the Metropolitan Police Service, is entirely false and without foundation.”