Peter Mandelson, a former government minister, British ambassador to the United States, and European commissioner has been released on police bail after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

London’s Metropolitan Police released Lord Mandelson from their custody in the early hours of Tuesday morning, approximately 13 hours after he was arrested at his London home on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mandelson returned to his multi-million pound Camden home around 0200 Tuesday morning. No charges have been made, and police said the long-time Labour grandee had been released on bail while they continued their investigation.

The force said in a statement:

A 72-year-old man arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office has been released on bail pending further investigation. He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, 23 February and was taken to a London police station for interview.

This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas. We are not able to provide further information at this stage to prevent prejudicing the integrity of the investigation.

Monday’s arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office — which carries a theoretical maximum sentence of life imprisonment — follows the latest tranche of Jeffrey Epstein emails released by the U.S. Department of Justice which purport to show alleged leaks of confidential government information to the deceased sex offender by Mandelson while he was a government minister during the time of the previous Labour government.

Mandelson has previosuly apologised for his association with Epstein and denies wrongdoing.

These alleged revelations and the arrest has shook Britain’s left-wing Labour government to its foundations, given Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein has been known for many years, yet despite that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer still appointed him as ambassador to Washington D.C. and accepted his assistance in making key decisions behind the scenes. Despite any potential guilt having not been proven in court, critics of the government have said Starmer’s decision to remain close to Mandelson shows a critical lack of judgement.