Police are searching Peter Mandelson’s homes in London and Wiltshire as they investigate him for misconduct in public office.
Scotland Yard has mounted a full criminal investigation into the former Labour grandee after damning revelations about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
While he was a Cabinet minister, the former spin doctor repeatedly tipped off the tycoon about market-sensitive government plans, emails suggest.
Two people believed to be police officers arrived outside Lord Mandelson’s house near Regent’s Park in central London this afternoon.
One of them appeared to be wearing a small body camera. They knocked on the door and entered the house. Police are also searching a second address in Wiltshire.
Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart 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.’
The criminal investigation was announced on Tuesday after the Government and former-prime minister Gordon Brown passed information to the Met.
The offence of misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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
The officers could be seen showing their warrant cards to a person inside
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’.
The scene outside Mr Mandelson’s Regents Park home this afternoon
The Met has confirmed it it investigating the peer over allegations relating to files appearing to show him leaking government information to Epstein
Lord Mandelson is pictured and mentioned many times throughout the released Epstein files
In this photo, Lord Mandelson stands in white underwear talking to a woman in a bathing robe
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.’
The under-fire Prime Minister is battling to stay in Downing Street as he reels from the Lord Mandelson scandal, with a number of backbenchers openly questioning his future.
In a bid to contain the crisis, Sir Keir has promised to release documents related to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in February last year.
But the Government was forced into ceding control of the release of material to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which will now decide what is made public.
Sir Keir was compelled to make the U-turn on Wednesday following a House of Commons revolt by Labour backbenchers, which was headed by Angela Rayner, the former deputy PM.
The Daily Mail understands that in the wake of Wednesday’s drama, Ms Rayner told an MP ‘I will be ready’ to launch a leadership challenge, despite an ongoing probe into her tax affairs.
In 2022 a picture emerged of Lord Mandelson singing as Epstein blows out the candles on a birthday cake
It has also been suggested Labour’s ‘women in grey suits’ could be sent to tell Sir Keir that his time is up.
But, in a scramble to ward off a coup, Sir Keir’s allies are insisting that any new PM – such as Ms Rayner – would not have a personal mandate from the electorate and therefore should call a general election.
In a further blow to Sir Keir, officials now fear that material published in the Mandelson files could harm his attempts to forge a friendship with President Trump.
The Government ceded control of the release to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which will decide what could be released into the public domain, following a revolt by Labour backbenchers.
But when it does come, Whitehall is braced for transatlantic trouble. One official told Politico that ‘there is lots which could be damaging’, adding that the disgraced former minister and diplomat ‘used to download his thoughts in real time’.
The US Epstein files have shown Mandelson sharing lewd and off-the-cuff messages with the late child abuser, including joking about ‘well-hung young men’ when he was a Cabinet minister.
It will deepen the pressure on the Prime Minister, who is facing serious questions over whether he can cling on to power.
