Met apologises to Commons speaker for sharing tip-off with Mandelson’s lawyers | UK news
The Metropolitan police have apologized to House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle for falsely revealing that she was the source of a tip that Peter Mandelson was allegedly planning to flee the UK, leading to officers arresting the former ambassador.
In a further twist to the story surrounding Mandelson’s departure and the Met’s investigation into allegations he gave confidential government information to Jeffrey Epstein, Hoyle told MPs on Wednesday that he had passed the information on to the police.
Senior Scotland Yard officers were meeting Hoyle in person on Wednesday afternoon to explain their mistake, which was internally deemed a serious breach of protocol.
Mandelson, who is being investigated for alleged abuse of public office, was arrested and interrogated on Monday. He denies any wrongdoing.
The former business secretary was furious at the move, saying detectives had agreed to interview him discreetly next month but that someone had mistakenly said he was preparing to flee to the British Virgin Islands.
An official custody document shared with Mandelson’s lawyers appears to mention the speaker of the House of Lords as the source of the information; This is an erroneous reference to Hoyle, the speaker of the House of Commons.
Hoyle went public with the fact that it was him after the Speaker of the House of Lords, Michael Forsyth, said it was “completely false and unfounded” to say he had reported to the police.
In a brief statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday morning, Hoyle said: “To avoid any false speculation, I would like to confirm that, having received the information, I considered it relevant in my duty and responsibility to pass it on to the Metropolitan police in good faith.”
The Guardian understands that information that Mandelson was supposedly planning to travel to the British Virgin Islands was passed to Hoyle from a person in a position of authority overseas.
Hoyle visited the Caribbean region on a three-day trip last week after being invited to celebrate the parliament’s 75th anniversary. He met with the governor and the prime minister and addressed the parliament.
It is understood that after Hoyle provided the information, Scotland Yard made its own assessment before deciding to arrest Mandelson.
Mandelson’s lawyers, Mishcon de Reya, wrote to the Met asking what evidence they based the arrest on. It was understood that Mandelson, who was released on bail early on Tuesday morning, surrendered his passport as part of his bail conditions.
Mandelson is understood to have told friends at around 4am on Tuesday, a few hours after his release, that claims he was preparing to flee the UK were completely false. His lawyers said his “top priority” was to cooperate with police.
His message read: “Despite an earlier agreement between the police and the legal team to meet voluntarily in early March, the police arrested me because… they claimed I was about to flee to the British Virgin Islands and leave Reinaldo to take up permanent residence abroad. [Avila da Silva]my family, my home and Jock [his dog] behind me,” he wrote.
“Needless to say it’s pure fiction. The police were told just today that they had to make an impromptu arrest. The question is, who or what is behind this?”
Keir Starmer faces significant political pressure over his decision to appoint Mandelson as ambassador to Washington in late 2024. At this point, newspapers had reported how Mandelson, a friend of Epstein, remained in contact with the disgraced financier even after he was sentenced to prison for soliciting sexual intercourse with a minor.
Mandelson was dismissed in September last year after details about the extent and duration of his contacts with Epstein emerged in files released by US authorities.
During Prime Minister’s questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch did not ask Starmer any questions about Mandelson beyond saying Labor had been called “the party of paedo defenders”.
The term drew condemnation from some Labor MPs who said it could put party activists at risk. The Conservative leader’s spokesman said he was quoting something a Labor MP had said.
Starmer also faces the headache of promising to call for the release of a trove of documents linked to Mandelson’s appointment, following a Conservative Party-led House of Commons motion this month.
The first batch is being prioritized and is being prepared for release soon. These are unrelated to the police investigation and have no potential consequences for national security or international relations, so they do not need to be checked by parliament’s intelligence and security committee.
But the timeline for other documents is described by officials as requiring “a few weeks”, with the Cabinet Office even recruiting internal volunteers to assist with the process.
Separately, a House of Commons motion this week also gave ministers the power to release documents relating to the decision to appoint Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as trade envoy, a position he held as Prince Andrew from 2001 to 2011.
This process, carried out by the Department of Trade and Commerce, is further complicated by a separate police investigation into Andrew’s allegations of misconduct in public office.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “The Met apologized to the Speaker of the House of Commons this afternoon for inadvertently disclosing information during an investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office.”
