Mandelson hits out at police for arrest over claims of flight risk

Peter Mandelson condemned the police for his arrest on Monday and claimed he was taken into custody only because detectives had wrongly believed he was about to flee the country.

- Pippa Crerar Peter Walker Vikram Dodd

In a remarkable rebuke to the Metropolitan police, lawyers for the former peer challenged the force to provide the evidence to justify their actions, insisting it was prompted by a “baseless” suggestion that he was planning to move abroad.

His lawyers said Scotland Yard had agreed to interview him under caution next month rather than arrest him over claims he passed sensitive government information to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But the Met was informed on Monday that Mandelson was preparing to leave the UK for the British Virgin Islands and took him into custody at a London police station before releasing him on bail in the early hours of yesterday.

Mandelson is understood to have told friends about 4am, just hours after his release, that the claims were “complete fiction” and questioned “who or what is behind this?” His lawyers said his “overriding priority” was cooperating with the police.