2h ago
18.28 GMT
How
Mandelson reportedly claimed Met heard allegation he was about to flee from
lord speaker
This is
what Emily Maitlis said about the message from Peter Mandelson about the lord
speaker. (See 6.15pm.)
Overnight
I heard from a colleague who sent me Peter Mandelson’s own words. And this is
what he told the colleague.
“Despite
previous agreements between police and the legal team over a voluntary
interview in early March, police arrested me because they claimed the lord
speaker received information that I was about to flee to the British Virgin
Islands and take up permanent residence abroad, leaving Reinaldo” – his husband
– “my family, home and Jock” – his dog – “behind me.
“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?”
Now, I
understand that this was sent around 4 am, approximately two hours after he’d
been released from police custody.
And
the tenor of that sounds as if he is saying the police arrested him because
they had a tip off that he was going to flee.
None
of that really makes sense when you pull it apart, because the idea of him
fleeing to the British Virgin Islands, which is obviously somewhere within a UK
jurisdiction, within an extradition treaty, doesn’t really sound logical.
But it
is interesting, Peter Mandelson’s own words, “who or what is behind this?” He
is doubting the integrity of the arrest itself. He’s doubting the integrity of
the police investigation, from the sounds of it, because he doesn’t think that
that was what he had previously agreed, which was a voluntary interview
sometime next week.
Jon
Sopel, Maitlis’s co-presenter on the News Agents, said it was “jaw-dropping”
that Mandelson could think it a good idea to start briefing against the Met at
4am
2h ago
18.15 GMT
Emily
Maitlis, the broadcaster and co-host of the News Agents podcast, has said that
Peter Mandelson is claiming that it was the lord speaker who told the police he
had been told that Mandelson was about to flee to the British Virgin Islands to
set up permanent residence.
Michael
Forsyth, a former Tory cabinet minister, has just taken over as lord speaker.
18.32 GMT
2h ago
18.06 GMT
Mandelson
complains police arrested him because of 'baseless' claim he was about to flee
UK, and vows to clear his name
Peter
Mandelson has complained about the decision by the police to arrest him
yesterday. In a statement issued by his lawyers, he has said that he had
already agreed to attend a police interview last month but that he was arrested
on the basis of a “baseless suggestion” he was about to flee the country.
The
statement, issued by the firm Mishcon de Reya, says:
Peter
Mandelson was arrested yesterday despite an agreement with the police that he
would attend an interview next month on a voluntary basis.
The
arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion that he was planning to leave the
country and take up permanent residence abroad.
There is
absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion.
We have
asked the MPS [Metropolitian Police] for the evidence relied upon to justify
the arrest.
Peter
Mandelson’s overriding priority is to cooperate with the police investigation,
as he has done throughout this process, and to clear his name.
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