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The House of Commons speaker has said he passed information to the Metropolitan police that Peter Mandelson planned to flee the country, after receiving information “in good faith”.
Mandelson was arrested on Monday on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, relating to his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson has denied he planned to flee to the British Virgin Islands.
In a statement to the house, Lindsay Hoyle said: “Members will be aware of comments in the media regarding the arrest of Lord Mandelson.
“To prevent any inaccurate speculation, I’d like to confirm that upon receipt of information, I felt it was relevant I pass this on to the Metropolitan police in good faith, as is my duty and responsibility.”
In a statement on Tuesday evening, Mandelson’s lawyers said the Metropolitan police had agreed to interview the disgraced former ambassador to Washington under caution next month rather than arrest him over claims that he had passed sensitive government information to Epstein during his time as business secretary. Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing.
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 Tuesday morning.
Mandelson is understood to have told friends at about 4am on Tuesday, just hours after his release, that the claims were completely false. His lawyers said his “overriding priority” was cooperating with the police.
His message to friends said: “Despite previous agreement between police and legal team over voluntary interview in early March, police arrested me because they claimed … that I was about to flee to the British Virgin Islands and take up permanent residence abroad, leaving Reinaldo [Avila da Silva], my family, home and Jock [his dog] behind me,” he wrote.
“I need hardly say complete fiction. The police were told only today that they had to improvise an arrest. The question is, who or what is behind this?”
Early reports suggested that the lord speaker, Michael Forsyth, was involved in passing on a tip to Scotland Yard. A spokesperson for Forsyth said this was “entirely false and without foundation”.
The government has committed to releasing a mass of documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to Washington in late 2024. He was sacked in September last year after details emerged about the extent and duration of his links to Epstein.
Under a Commons motion pushed earlier this month by the Conservatives, ministers are committed to releasing many thousands of files connected to the appointment, which is expected to be a lengthy process.
A first batch is being prioritised for imminent release. These have no relevance to the police inquiry, and do not have any potential consequences for national security or international relations, and so do not need to be checked by parliament’s intelligence and security committee, as agreed under the motion.
The timeline for other documents is, in contrast, described by officials as requiring “a number of weeks”, even with the Cabinet Office recruiting internal volunteers to help with the process.
