The arrest in the Camden district is confirmed by the London police, who do not name Mandelson but refer to the arrest of a 72-year-old man. He is suspected of misconduct while holding public office.
Mandelson was previously forced to resign from his post as Britain's ambassador to Washington, D.C., after it emerged that his contacts with Epstein were more extensive than he had previously said.
Departure requirements
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has publicly apologized for his own responsibility in appointing Mandelson as ambassador. Starmer's influential cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, has previously resigned as a result of the scandals surrounding Mandelson. Starmer's closest aides, chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and communications director Tim Allan, have also resigned due to the scandal.
The politically pressured Prime Minister Starmer has so far rejected growing demands for his resignation.
But Mandelson's fall shakes the Labour Party to its foundations. The political fixer Mandelson was instrumental in building the new generation of the Labour Party in the 1990s and its then-leader Tony Blair.
Became a baron
He was given a position as Minister of Industry in the late 1990s, but was forced to resign after a scandal surrounding a house purchase in London.
Mandelson later returned in a Labour government as Minister for Northern Ireland, but was again forced to leave the post after he intervened in a citizenship application for an Indian businessman.
However, he made a political comeback when he became EU Commissioner for Trade from 2004 to 2008, when Britain was still a member of the Union, and then became a minister in Gordon Brown's government. He was also made Baron Mandelson.
Police are tight-lipped about the exact charges, but they appear to relate to the passing of information. Mandelson has not been charged with sexual assault in connection with the release of the Epstein files.
The arrest comes after former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on similar charges. Mountbatten-Windsor was released on Thursday, but police have continued to search his home.
