Police in London have confirmed they initially failed to investigate the theft of a phone belonging to Morgan McSweeney, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff.
Mr McSweeney told the Metropolitan Police that his phone was stolen as he returned home from a restaurant in central London on October 20 last year, making him one of the many victims whose phones have been snatched in the UK capital.
The theft meant that messages relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as British Ambassador to the US could potentially be lost.
Mr McSweeney told police the phone was taken by a man wearing a balaclava on an electric bike, the The State of It podcast from The Times and The Sunday Times reported.
He was given a crime reference number but the case was closed. Mr McSweeney was not spoken to directly because they were said to be “too busy”.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed receiving a report from “a man in his 40s” but said it had incorrectly recorded the location that the alleged incident took place.
Police said a previous review of the allegation, including whether there was CCTV available, “did not identify any realistic lines of inquiry” and the investigation was closed.
A police representative said: “On Monday October 20 police received a report from a man in his 40s alleging that his phone had been snatched.
“The incident was recorded as having taken place in Belgrave Street, E1. A review of the allegation, including a consideration of whether there was available CCTV, did not identify any realistic lines of inquiry. The investigation was subsequently closed.
“In the course of responding to a recent media inquiry, we became aware that the address was entered incorrectly at the time of the initial call and should instead have been recorded as Belgrave Road, Pimlico.
“Having identified this error, the report will be amended and the assessment of whether there is available evidence revisited.”
The Met Police later took the unusual step of releasing a transcript of the 999 call reporting the theft of Mr McSweeney’s phone.
In the course of the call, he gives his name, a personal email address and a home address outside London, and he says the device is a government phone and that he has called his office to get it tracked.
He wrongly gives the location as Belgrave Street, which is in Tower Hamlets, rather than Belgrave Road in Westminster, during the call on October 20 last year.
The error, uncovered when the Met was responding to a media query about the case, meant officers checked the wrong CCTV and concluded there were no realistic lines of inquiry to follow. This is now being reviewed.
The Met stressed officers and staff did not know the caller’s job or the sensitivity of the material that would have been saved on his phone at the time.
Lord Mandelson, a fixture in the Labour Party since the 1980s, is the focus of a police investigation following the US release of files owned by paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr McSweeney quit as Mr Starmer's chief of staff Downing Street in February under immense pressure, with many having blamed him for pushing the appointment of Lord Mandelson. He said he took “full responsibility” for the appointment Mr Mandelson as Washington envoy.
MPs have ordered the UK government to release tens of thousands of documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment in 2024 after questions over how the peer was vetted and what was known about his links to Mr Epstein.
The Cabinet Office does have some of the messages between him and Lord Mandelson, it is understood.
A government representative previously said: “We are committed to complying with the humble address in full while continuing to support the Metropolitan Police with their investigation.”
