Peter Mandelson was arrested at his Regent’s Park home amid concerns he posed a potential flight risk, according to his legal team.
The former cabinet minister and peer was detained on Monday afternoon on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following allegations that sensitive government documents were leaked while he was serving as business secretary under Gordon Brown.
Police questioned Mandelson for several hours before releasing him on bail in the early hours of Tuesday morning. As part of his bail conditions, he was required to surrender his passport.
His lawyers said officers had previously agreed to interview him on a voluntary basis next month but moved to arrest him following what they described as a “baseless suggestion” that he was planning to relocate abroad.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Mandelson said: “There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any suggestion that he was intending to leave the country permanently. His overriding priority is to cooperate fully with the police investigation and to clear his name.”
Sources indicated that detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service acted after receiving new information over the weekend. Earlier this month, officers from the force’s Central Specialist Crime team executed search warrants at two properties linked to Mandelson and seized computers and documents for examination.
A source close to the investigation said the decision to arrest was taken for “clear operational reasons” after fresh intelligence came to light.
Mandelson has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. The investigation remains ongoing.
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Lord Mandelson arrested amid concerns he was ‘flight risk’