Watchdog reopens investigation into Jonathan Reynolds’ legal career claims
The solicitors’ regulator has reopened an investigation into the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, over accusations he misrepresented his legal career.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority said on Friday it would look into allegations that Reynolds had incorrectly claimed to have worked as a solicitor even though he did not finish his legal training.
The confirmation comes after the website Guido Fawkes revealed Reynolds had not qualified, despite his LinkedIn profile listing one of his previous jobs as “solicitor”.
The SRA wrote to Reynolds in January after becoming aware of the error on his LinkedIn profile but decided not to take further action after it was corrected.
On Friday, however, a spokesperson for the regulator said: “We looked at that issue at the time we became aware of it and contacted Mr Reynolds about the profiles. The materials were corrected, and we closed the matter with no further action based on all the evidence we had at the time.
“However, we’ve now become aware of further information, so we will look at this.”
The spokesperson would not say why the regulator had changed its position since Wednesday.
The decision came after Robert Jenrick wrote to the SRA demanding a new inquiry. The shadow justice secretary earlier this week accused Reynolds of “criminal conduct” and called on the prime minister, Keir Starmer, to sack him.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Jonathan looks forward to engaging fully with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and drawing a line under the matter.”
Reynolds trained as a solicitor but left before finishing his training contract to run for parliament in 2010.
In recent days he has come under pressure to explain why he referred to himself as a solicitor, not only on his LinkedIn page but also on a previous version of his website and in the Commons. He told MPs in 2014 he had “worked as a solicitor in Manchester city centre”.
Diana Johnson, a Home Office minister, said this week that the errors on Reynolds’ LinkedIn profile had been “mistakes made by administrative staff”. Neither Labour nor Reynolds have commented on why he referred to himself as a solicitor in the Commons.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has also had to correct her LinkedIn profile after it said she had been an economist at the bank HBOS when she actually worked in retail banking. Her profile also said she had worked for the Bank of England until December 2006, when she had left in March that year.
