Police search two properties linked to Peter Mandelson amid Epstein investigation
The Metropolitan Police confirmed it is looking at two addresses in Wiltshire and Camden, North London
The police are searching two properties linked to Peter Mandelson as part of the investigation into him leaking information to Jeffrey Epstein.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed it is looking at two addresses in Wiltshire and Camden, North London.
The development comes after the Metropolitan Police confirmed it is investigating the peer over allegations relating to files appearing to show him sharing government information with paedophile financier Epstein during the financial crash.
Writing in The Scotsman on Saturday, former UK government minister and Scottish Labour MP Brian Wilson warns Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer his only way of surviving will be to clear out his advisers.
Two people believed to be police officers arrived outside Lord Mandelson’s house near Regent’s Park in central London on Friday afternoon.
One of them appeared to be wearing a small body camera. They knocked on the door and entered the house.
Deputy assistant commissioner Hayley Sewart, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "I can confirm that officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime team are in the process of carrying out search warrants at two addresses, one in the Wiltshire area, 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."
Documents released as part of the so-called Epstein files led to allegations that while Lord Mandelson was business secretary following the 2008 financial crisis, he passed on market-sensitive information to the sex offender.
Lord Mandelson has yet to speak publicly, but the BBC said it understood he maintains he did not act criminally and that his actions were not for personal gain.
Sir Keir has come under increasing pressure over his decision to appoint him as Britain’s ambassador to the US after further details of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein were revealed in the files.
The extent of what was known about the relationship is expected to be revealed when documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment are published following a motion in Parliament demanding their release.
Publication of the full tranche of documents could take some time, as Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee must review any items that the government wishes to withhold for national security reasons.
The Metropolitan Police has also asked for some documents to be withheld, claiming it could jeopardise its criminal investigation.
Labour MPs issued further calls on Friday for Sir Keir to dismiss his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, whom they blame for Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.
Dozens of MPs – including Labour’s Alloa and Grangemouth MP Brian Leishman and the SNP MP for Aberdeen North Kirsty Blackman – backed a call from Labour left winger Nadia Whittome for a full public inquiry into links between Epstein and figures in the British establishment.
Mr Leishman had told LBC on Thursday that Mr McSweeney had to go. Asked whether Sir Keir would survive, he said: “It’s a long way back for him.”
Other than a handful of backbenchers, most MPs have so far declined to call for the Prime Minister himself to resign, stressing their support for Sir Keir while urging a change in backroom staff.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman has said Sir Keir retains “full confidence” in Mr McSweeney.
In a speech on Thursday, Sir Keir defended his handling of the Mandelson affair, accusing the peer of lying during his vetting for the US ambassador job and offering an apology to Epstein’s victims for believing his “lies”.
He also insisted “none of us knew the depth of the darkness” of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein when he was appointed.
The extent of what was known about the relationship is expected to be revealed when documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment are published following a motion in Parliament demanding their release.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon – a Scottish Labour leadership contender in 2021 – said just mentioning Lord Mandelson’s name “makes my skin crawl”, accusing him of abusing his position and public trust.
“It’s not what anyone in the Labour Party wants to be talking about right now,” she told the BBC.
“The good work the government is doing has been completely overshadowed by these scandals.”
She added: “I think there will be a lot of soul-searching over the weekend.
“The Prime Minister clearly is distressed by the events and he is pointing fingers at Peter Mandelson, but there are questions for everyone at the top of government.”
Ms Lennon called for “accountability”, adding: “It can’t just be someone steps down from a role, or there’s an apology. There needs to be accountability.
“I think we’ve seen Parliament this week rise to the occasion and hold the government to the account.”
“I think Angela Rayner’s intervention was pretty powerful.”
Ms Rayner, the former deputy prime minister who some observers believe is preparing a leadership campaign, led a backbench revolt this week to force the government to cede control over the release of documents around Lord Mandelson’s appointment to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee.
The former leadership contender continued: “I can’t speak for colleagues, but I know there is a lot of anger, people are disgusted – this isn’t the change that we wanted.”
Former Labour MP and UK energy minister Brian Wilson warned the Prime Minister will struggle to survive - and would only do so by sacking his advisers.
Writing in The Scotsman, Mr Wilson said: “I doubt if Starmer can recover from this and, as more of the background comes out and the political roast has scarcely started dripping, I would shed no tears if he recognised that now, even if it meant a leadership contest sooner rather than later.
“To adapt an old adage, things can hardly get worse and every bit of good the Labour government is doing is lost in the procession of self-inflicted wounds.
“Starmer has certainly been let down by Mandelson and is rightly very angry about it. But from the outset of his premiership, he has been lamentably failed by those who were giving him political advice.
“His last hope of survival may lie in clearing out that stable, for the quality of their advice certainly isn’t going to get better.”
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