Authorities are currently conducting searches at Peter Mandelson’s properties in both London and Wiltshire as part of an inquiry into possible misconduct in public office.
Scotland Yard has launched a comprehensive criminal investigation focusing on the former Labour heavyweight following serious allegations regarding his connections with Jeffrey Epstein.
During his tenure as a Cabinet minister, emails suggest that Mandelson, known for his strategic political maneuvering, frequently informed the financier of government plans that could impact the market.
This afternoon, two individuals, purported to be police officers, were seen arriving at Lord Mandelson’s residence near Regent’s Park in central London.
One officer appeared to be equipped with a small body camera. They knocked on the door and proceeded inside. Simultaneously, law enforcement is also examining a second location in Wiltshire.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart stated, “I can confirm that officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime team are executing search warrants at two locations: one in the Wiltshire region and another in the Camden area.”
‘The searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences, involving a 72-year-old man. He has not been arrested and enquiries are ongoing.’
The criminal investigation was announced on Tuesday after the Government and former-prime minister Gordon Brown passed information to the Met.
It came as the Daily Mail uncovered further sensational details about Lord Mandelson’s dealings with Epstein, with whom he remained close even after the financier had been jailed for child sex offences.
One bombshell email seemingly showed the pair discussing confidential negotiations over a £10billionnistry of Defence contract while Lord Mandelson was business secretary in Mr Brown’s government.
Today, detectives were seen entering Mr Mandelson’s home in Camden, north London, while further searches were carried out at his other property in Wiltshire
A police officer outside the former Labour grandee’s London home today
Epstein and Mandelson had a close relationship. They are seen sitting together on a yacht
In another exchange, on the day Epstein was released from prison, the pair appeared to joke about celebrating with ‘two strippers’ – with Lord Mandelson branding his paedophile friend a ‘naughty boy’ for making the suggestion.
Lord Mandelson has previously suggested his status as a gay man meant he was ‘kept separate from what (Epstein) was doing in the sexual side of his life’.
Among the three million pages of so-called Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice are bank statements that suggest Lord Mandelson and his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, received payments from Epstein totalling tens of thousands of pounds.
Labour’s ‘Dark Lord’ is named as the recipient of three $25,000 (£21,500) payments, which he denies getting, while Mr da Silva was the subject of a standing order that paid out $4,000 (£2,900) a month for three months.
On Tuesday, the disgraced peer finally bowed to public pressure and resigned his seat in the House of Lords.
But he now faces a police investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office – an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison for those convicted.
The Labour grandee, who has always denied wrongdoing, is now likely to be interviewed by officers over claims that his dealings with Epstein broke the law.
Cabinet ministers David Lammy and Pat McFadden, who served as junior ministers in his department, could also be asked to provide evidence, as could Mr Brown.
Confirmation of a police probe came just hours after Downing Street revealed that the Cabinet Office had sent its own dossier to detectives highlighting the ‘market-sensitive’ nature of the material apparently passed by Lord Mandelson to Epstein at the height of the financial crisis.
No 10 said Sir Keir Starmer was ‘appalled’ by the revelations. He told a meeting of his Cabinet that Lord Mandelson had ‘let his country down’.
But Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir and his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had ‘a lot of questions to answer’ about why they appointed Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the United States despite knowing he had maintained his friendship with the notorious paedophile.
The Tory leader branded the scandal a ‘national embarrassment’. She said the police inquiry was ‘inevitable’ given the seriousness of the allegations, but said people ‘should not let this distract us from the fact that the Prime Minister has his fingerprints all over this’.
She added: ‘I think the Prime Minister himself needs to come clean and tell us what he knew and when, and be honest about how this ever happened in the first place.’
