Police arrest man over stolen government phone linked to Mandelson row

A stolen government phone at the center of the Mandelson controversy has moved one step deeper into the criminal resale chain, after police arrested a 28-year-old man in south London on suspicion of handling stolen goods.

The Metropolitan Police said the arrest took place on April 29 at an address in Peckham. Officers suspect the man received Morgan McSweeney’s phone after it was stolen in Pimlico, then sold it on. He was later bailed, and Scotland Yard said the device has still not been recovered.

The theft dates to October 20, 2025, when the phone was snatched in Belgrave Road, central London. McSweeney told the 999 operator that it was a government phone and said he had chased the thief before calling police. He gave the wrong street name, however, identifying Belgrave Street rather than Belgrave Road, and the case was logged incorrectly. He also did not tell police that he was Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, though he did provide his name, a personal email address and a home address.

The episode has become more than a street crime because the phone is believed to have potentially contained messages relevant to Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the United States. With the handset still missing, concerns have grown that important exchanges may already have been lost, leaving questions over what information was on the device and how much of it could have been exposed once it entered the resale market.

That has drawn scrutiny far beyond the theft itself. The Metropolitan Police later released a transcript of McSweeney’s emergency call amid questions about how the incident was handled, and officers have been reviewing CCTV linked to the theft. In Westminster, the case has added fuel to pressure in the House of Commons and from the Foreign Affairs Select Committee for the government to release related records and messages.

The political fallout has also reached No 10 and Downing Street, where Labour figures and opposition MPs have criticized the handling of the Mandelson appointment. But the security questions may prove longer lasting: what protections were on the device, whether sensitive data was encrypted or remotely wiped, and how a stolen phone belonging to a senior government official could be passed on, resold and still remain out of reach months later.