Legal watchdog is urged to launch an investigation into Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds after Business Secretary falsely claimed he was a solicitor_Nhy
Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds has been taken to task by a legal watchdog for wrongly claiming to be a solicitor.
The latest fresh blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s vow to restore trust to politics has led to calls for the Business Secretary to be sacked after he repeatedly said he worked as a lawyer.
Mr Reynolds made the claim over a number of years in the House of Commons, in social media posts and on his personal website.
But, in reality, he did not qualify as he quit his training early to become an MP – and so he was never added to the official roll of solicitors kept by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
It emerged last night the SRA wrote to him last month telling him to correct the error in his CV on the business social network LinkedIn.
An SRA spokesman added: ‘We are aware of this issue, however having considered all factors involved, there is no need for us to take any action.’
But shadow justice spokesman Robert Jenrick last night urged the regulator, who has the power to prosecute people who falsely claim to be lawyers, to launch a full investigation.
He said he considers Mr Reynold’s claims a ‘prima facie breach’ of the Solicitors Act 1974 and the Legal Services Act 2007, which make it a criminal offence to pretend to be a solicitor.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds made the claim over a number of years in the House of Commons, in social media posts and on his personal website
Tory MP Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, wrote to Sir Keir Starmer’s ethics watchdog to call for an investigation
Mr Jenrick pointed out the SRA states that even falsely claiming to be a solicitor on social media is a crime.
Mr Jenrick, a former solicitor, added: ‘The Business Secretary spent over a decade pretending to be a solicitor. Not just on LinkedIn but in the House of Commons, on his website and in conversations.
‘The law is crystal clear – it is a crime to behave in this manner – and the evidence is overwhelming.
‘I have asked the Solicitors Regulatory Authority to investigate with a view to prosecuting.
‘As a former Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer doesn’t need to wait, he should be able to judge from the evidence before him that Reynolds doesn’t have a leg to stand on and sack him.’
Mr Reynolds is also facing the prospect of a separate investigation by the ministerial sleaze watchdog.
Shadow business spokesman Andrew Griffith has written to Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards Sir Laurie Magnus asking him to open a probe into ‘potential breaches’.
Mr Griffith said Mr Reynolds ‘should do the decent thing, apologise and step down – instead there is no sign of him doing so.’
It was revealed by the political website Guido Fawkes this week that Mr Reynolds had made several public claims to have worked as a solicitor even though he left his training at Addleshaw Goddard in Manchester early in order to stand in the 2010 election.
In one message still visible from that year, he told a Twitter user: ‘No, I was a commercial lawyer.’
