A man has been arrested on suspicion of trying to sell Morgan McSweeney’s phone after it was stolen.
Mr McSweeney, former chief of staff to Sir Keir Starmer, reported that his government device had been stolen on 20 October last year. The theft became national news amid concerns that key exchanges relating to Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as British ambassador to the US could be lost as a result of it.
Metropolitan Police said they arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of handling stolen goods as part of the investigation into the theft of a mobile phone in Belgrave Road, Pimlico.
Scotland Yard took the man into police custody last Wednesday and he was later bailed. He is not suspected of involvement in the original theft last year, the force added.
A spokesperson said: “Officers investigating the theft of a mobile phone in Belgrave Road, Pimlico on 20 October 2025 have arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
“The arrest took place on Wednesday, 29 April at an address in Peckham. The man was taken into police custody and later bailed.
“He is suspected of receiving the phone after it was stolen and then selling it on. He is not suspected of any involvement in the original theft.
“The phone has not been recovered.”
It is believed that messages on the phone could fall within the scope of a call by MPs for the release of all documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s posting to Washington in the wake of revelations about his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The former adviser has said he “probably” used disappearing messages on WhatsApp in his exchanges with Lord Mandelson.
Mr McSweeney, who resigned over his part in the scandal in February, told the Foreign Affairs Committee at the end of April about the circumstances surrounding the theft of his Government phone.
“Somebody hopped onto the pavement and took my phone from me,” he claimed. “The first thing I did was to try and retrieve it. I tried to chase, which is probably a mistake. The next thing I did was I phoned No 10, and I would have gone with whatever they told me to do.”
Mr McSweeney said: “I then called 999. If No 10 had told me you need to tell the police or you need to tell the call handler what your job is, I would have done so. But otherwise, I didn’t do that as a matter of course. I didn’t in any part of my job go around saying ‘I’m a very serious and senior person’.”
When he originally called the police, he described his location as Belgrave Street – an address in Stepney, east London, rather than Belgrave Road in Pimlico.
When asked by the committee why he’d given the wrong address, he said: “I was also quite adrenalised. So what happened was, I chased the guy who stole my phone as far as I could.”
He added: “I also said I was in Westminster.
“So I said I was in Belgrave Street, Westminster, where I think I was on… Lower Belgrave Street. So it was some months ago, and I missed the ‘Lower’. I didn’t see it.”
The former No 10 chief of staff said: “I was out of breath, I was completely exhausted, because at 48 years of age you shouldn’t be chasing people down the street, and then I was trying to go back to the original location that it happened, so that I could tell the 999 operator.”
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
