A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of selling former Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney’s stolen phone.
Scotland Yard took the suspect into police custody last Wednesday from an address in Peckham, southeast London, and he was later bailed.
Concerns had been raised that the theft, reported by Mr McSweeney last October, could result in important messages about Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador being lost.
MPs moved in February to force the Government to publish thousands of files amid questions over what was known of the peer’s links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein before he was handed the Washington job.
The man arrested last week is not suspected of involvement in the original theft and the phone has not been recovered, the Metropolitan Police said.
Mr McSweeney quit Downing Street earlier this year, with many having blamed him for pushing Lord Mandelson’s appointment.
A spokesperson for the Met said: “Officers investigating the theft of a mobile phone in Belgrave Road, Pimlico, on October 20 2025 have arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
“The arrest took place on Wednesday April 29 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.”
Earlier this year, police took the unusual step of releasing a transcript of Mr McSweeney’s 999 call amid heightened scrutiny over the response to the theft.
In the course of the conversation, he gave his name, a personal email address and a home address outside London, and said the device was a Government phone and that he had called his office to get it tracked.
He also wrongly gave his location as Belgrave Street rather than Belgrave Road during the October 20 call, and the Met then wrongly recorded the theft as having taken place in east London rather than Westminster.
This meant officers checked the wrong CCTV and concluded there were no realistic lines of inquiry to follow.
Officers have now gone through CCTV from Belgrave Road in Pimlico from the time of the offence as part of a review, it is understood.
