Police officers arrested Lord Mandelson at his London home on Monday afternoon because they worried he was a flight risk, his lawyers have said.
The peer's lawyers have told the BBC there is "absolutely no truth" in the suggestion that Lord Mandelson was planning to leave the UK and move abroad.
I suspect he wasn't planning, but if he was then it's a shame they didn't let him. Peter Mandelson, international fugitive, would be a funny story!
It said: “Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday despite an agreement with the police that he would attend an interview next month on a voluntary basis.
“The arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion that he was planning to leave the country and take up permanent residence abroad. There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion.
“We have asked the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] for the evidence relied upon to justify the arrest.
"Peter Mandelson’s overriding priority is to cooperate with the police investigation, as he has done throughout this process, and to clear his name.”