Professor Anthony Glees has branded the arrest of Lord Peter Mandelson “a big disaster” for the Labour Government.
Speaking to GB News, the security expert raised serious concerns about the potential harm caused to both the British state and the Labour Party.
He said: “In the case of Lord Mandelson, he still is Lord, it’s a question of the damage that he could have done to the British state, but also the damage that he did to the Labour Party and the Labour Government. Whichever way you look, this is actually a big disaster.”
The Former US Ambassador was arrested this afternoon on suspicion of misconduct in public office, as police were pictured escorting him from his home.
The ex-Labour minister has been accused of passing on information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary. Mr Mandelson has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
In a statement, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
“He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, February 23, and has been taken to a London police station for interview.
“This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas.”
Professor Anthony Glees has told GB News the arrest of Lord Peter Mandelson could spell ‘disaster’ for the Labour Governent
|
GB NEWS / POOL
Reacting to Mr Mandelson’s arrest, Mr Glees told the People’s Channel;: “In the case of Lord Mandelson, it’s a question of the damage that he could have done to the British state, but also the damage that he did to the Labour Party and the Labour Government.
“And it’s not just this 20-year stretch of highly influential activities in which Lord Mandelson was engaged in, it is also a question of the obvious failure to vet him properly before Sir Keir Starmer made him British ambassador in Washington.”
He continued: “So now that he has been arrested on the basis of allegations, the police and the Security Service, I should have thought, possibly even the Secret Intelligence Service, whose job it is to gain information about what happens overseas, will all be involved in building up a rich picture, a very rich picture.
“This is a broad canvas, and any eventual case, should one emerge, would be highly complicated, take a number of years, I should have thought, to assemble.
The former US ambassador was seen being led away from his home by police this afternoon | POOL
“And the longer this goes on, the worse it is for the Labour government, the worse it is for the Labour Party, and the worse it is for Britain.”
Mr Glees posed searching questions about the current administration’s commitment to national security.
He told GB News: “Let’s not forget, this is somebody who the Government claimed they had vetted just a year ago, even though by that stage, they knew full well that Lord Mandelson had had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein that went back 20 years.
“So this really does ask a critical question, how seriously does this current government take our national internal security?”
Anthony Glees told GB News the arrest may be ‘damaging’ to the Labour Government
|
GB NEWS
Earlier this month, the peer resigned his Labour membership and said he has “no record or recollection” of alleged financial payments made to him by Epstein.
Mr Mandelson has previously said of his relations with Epstein: “I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes like everyone else.
“I learned the actual truth about him after his death, and he added that he had relied on assurances of his innocence,” he said. “That turned out later to be horrendously false.”
Lord Mandelson has not responded to previous requests for comment, but we understand that prior to his arrest, his position was he has not acted criminally and did not act for personal gain.