Former UK ambassador Mandelson released on bail after arrest in Epstein
probe
[February 24, 2026]
By PAN PYLAS and JILL LAWLESS
LONDON (AP) — Police in Britain said Peter Mandelson, the former U.K.
ambassador to the United States, has been released on bail after he was
arrested in a misconduct probe stemming from his ties to the late
Jeffrey Epstein. It came days after a friendship with Epstein landed the
former Prince Andrew in police custody.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said in a statement issued just after
2 a.m. Tuesday: “A 72-year-old man arrested on suspicion of misconduct
in public office has been released on bail pending further
investigation.
The man was not named, in keeping with British police practice, but the
suspect in the case previously was identified as the former diplomat,
who is 72. Mandelson was filmed being led from his London home to a car
by plainclothes officers on Monday afternoon.
Both Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew,
are suspected of improperly passing U.K. government information to the
disgraced U.S. financier, and the high-profile British arrests are some
of the most dramatic fallout from the trove of more than 3 million pages
of Epstein-related documents released last month by the U.S. Justice
Department.
Claims of leaked government information
Police are investigating Mandelson over claims he passed sensitive
government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago. He does not
face allegations of sexual misconduct.
His arrest came four days after Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in a
separate case on suspicion of a similar offense related to his
friendship with Epstein. He was released after 11 hours in custody while
the police investigation continues.
Mandelson served in senior government roles under previous Labour
governments and was U.K. ambassador to Washington until Prime Minister
Keir Starmer fired him in September after emails were published showing
that he maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008
conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.
The files released in January contained more explosive revelations about
Mandelson's ties to Epstein, whom he once called “my best pal.”
Messages suggest that Mandelson passed on sensitive — and potentially
market-moving — government information to Epstein in 2009, when
Mandelson was a senior minister in the British government. That includes
an internal government report discussing ways the U.K. could raise money
after the 2008 global financial crisis, including by selling off
government assets. Mandelson also appears to have told Epstein he would
lobby other members of the government to reduce a tax on bankers’
bonuses.
British police launched a criminal probe earlier this month and searched
Mandelson’s two houses in London and western England.
The decision to appoint Mandelson nearly cost Starmer his job earlier
this month, as questions swirled around his judgment about someone who
has flirted with controversy during a decades-long political career.
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Peter Mandelson leaves his home in Wiltshire, England, Feb. 20,
2026. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP, File)
Though he acknowledged he made a mistake and apologized to victims
of Epstein, Starmer’s position remains precarious. His future may
rest on the release of files connected to Mandelson’s appointment.
The government has pledged to begin releasing those documents in
early March, though the timeline may be complicated by his arrest.
Mandelson a contentious figure
Mandelson has been a major, if contentious, figure in the
center-left Labour Party for decades. He is a skilled — critics say
ruthless — political operator whose mastery of political intrigue
earned him the nickname “Prince of Darkness.”
The grandson of former Labour Cabinet minister Herbert Morrison, he
was an architect of the party’s return to power in 1997 as centrist,
modernizing “New Labour” under Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mandelson served in senior government posts under Blair between 1997
and 2001, and under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010.
In between, he was the European Union’s trade commissioner. Brown
has been particularly angered by the revelations and has been
helping police with their inquiries.
Mandelson twice had to resign from government during the Blair
administration over allegations of financial or ethical impropriety,
acknowledging mistakes but denying wrongdoing.
He later returned to government and was back on the political front
line when Starmer named him ambassador to Washington at the start of
U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. Mandelson’s trade
expertise and comfort around the ultra-rich were considered major
assets. He helped secure a trade deal in May that spared Britain
some of the tariffs Trump has imposed on countries around the world.
The status of the deal is now up in the air after Trump announced a
new set of global tariffs in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court
decision quashing his previous import tax order.
Earlier this month Mandelson resigned from the House of Lords,
Parliament’s upper chamber, to which he was appointed for life in
2008. But he still has the title — Lord Mandelson — that went with
it.
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