Peter Mandelson spent Monday night in a police cell.

The former Labour heavyweight was arrested at his London home yesterday afternoon by plain clothes Met officers, bundled into an unmarked car, and driven to Wandsworth nick. He sat there for nine hours. Just after midnight, they let him go on bail.

His lawyers at Mishcon De Reya aren't happy. They say Mandelson had already agreed to attend a voluntary interview next month. The arrest, they claim, was triggered by a "baseless suggestion" he was about to do a runner. Pack up and move abroad permanently.

"There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion," said a firm spokesperson.

Right. So what's this actually about?

The Met launched its investigation earlier this month into allegations that Mandelson, while serving as a government minister, passed market-sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein. Yes, that Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson denies any wrongdoing.

Last month the US Department of Justice released a tranche of documents including emails between the two men. One from 2009 appears to show Mandelson relaying a Downing Street adviser's assessment of Gordon Brown's policy plans. References to an "asset sales plan," talk of a bankers' bonus tax, and details about a Euro bailout the day before it went public.

The emails are public record. What they mean is for the courts to decide. But the optics are brutal.

Mandelson's camp insists he hasn't done anything criminal and wasn't motivated by money. Starmer gave this man the Washington ambassadorship in February 2025, only to remove him seven months later when fresh details about his Epstein connections emerged. That appointment looks worse by the day.

The Met's specialist crime lot are running the case. CPS consultations ongoing. Bail until end of May.

Nobody's suggesting Mandelson is guilty. But the questions keep stacking up, and "cooperating fully" only gets you so far when the emails are sitting right there in black and white.