A man has been arrested on suspicion of selling the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney’s stolen phone.
Mr McSweeney phoned 999 to report that the device had been stolen in the City of Westminster on October 20 last year.
At the time, he told officers that it was a ‘government device’ but did not inform them he was Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.
He was given a crime reference number and the case was later closed – but it was later reopened after the theft became public knowledge.
The crime made national headlines as it is feared the majority of messages between Mr McSweeney and Peter Mandelson will not be recoverable, and therefore will not be part of the government’s disclosure on his appointment as US ambassador.
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.
On Wednesday, officers from the Met Police arrested a 28-year-old man in Peckham, southeast London, on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
The man, who is not suspected of having been involved in the original theft, has since been bailed. The phone has still not been recovered.
Morgan McSweeney phoned 999 to report that the device had been stolen in Westminster on October 20 last year
Keir Starmer with Morgan McSweeney (left) in Downing Street last year
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson 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.’
Mr McSweeney phoned police from another phone to report the theft of his work device on Belgrave Road in Pimlico.
He said at the time he had given chase to the thief, but was unable to keep up as they were riding a bicycle. He then retraced his steps and phoned 999.
But miscommunication meant that the location of the crime was recorded as a similar street address five miles away in east London.
Pushing back at criticism over the case, the Met took the unusual step of publishing the full transcript of the conversation as it reopened the investigation.
Officers reviewed extensive CCTV footage from the area and were reportedly preparing to interview No10 officials about the incident.
After the theft was reported, the Government said the phone was remotely shut off and Mr McSweeney was provided with a replacement.
The transcript of Mr McSweeney’s report revealed he said: ‘Someone just robbed my phone. He’s on a bike. He’s come onto the pavement to grab my phone and cycled off on a bike.’
When asked where it took place, the former aide to Sir Keir gave the street name as ‘Belgrave Street in Westminster’. The street was actually called Belgrave Road, and the crime was inaccurately logged as having taken place in Belgrave Street in east London, not Westminster.
Officers would not be deployed to the scene of the theft due to ‘extreme demand’, the call handler said.
Appearing in front of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on April 28 in relation to the appointment of Mandelson, Mr McSweeney was asked about the theft.
He said he reported it to No10 as soon as it happened, and he ‘thought at the time that they would be able to track’ the phone.
‘I then called 999. If No10 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,’ he said.
‘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.” If No10 had asked me to do it, I would have done that.’
He later made ‘further calls to No10’, and said he was ‘quite surprised by how limited the security is around the chief of staff’s telephone’.
Mr McSweeney left Downing Street in February, saying he took ‘full responsibility’ for failures in the appointment of Mandelson, who was later fired as US ambassador due to his friendship with Epstein.
