Reynolds urged to quit over accusations he falsely claimed to be solicitor
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is being urged to resign as a minister over accusations he falsely claimed to be a solicitor, despite only being a trainee.
The cabinet minister – who is responsible for the UK’s businesses and international trade – has been criticised for describing himself as a solicitor before becoming an MP, despite never completing a traineeship which would have qualified him in the legal role.
Reynolds also does not appear on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) online register.
Calls for him to go have emerged from Reynolds’ opposite number, Tory Andrew Griffith as well as Reform UK’s five MPs.
The shadow business and trade secretary has written to the independent advisor on ministerial standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, to ask him to investigate what he called “potential breaches of the ministerial code”.
Griffith posted on X that Reynolds had “falsely claimed to be a solicitor on numerous occasions” and suggested: “This is exactly what brings public life into disrepute.”
He said the business secretary “should do the decent thing, apologise and step down”.
Reform UK’s five MPs – Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock – wrote to Sir Keir Starmer urging him to “take immediate action to remove” Reynolds, who they claimed had “broken the law and misled Parliament”.
City PM understands the SRA contacted Reynolds in January relating to an error on his LinkedIn profile and clarified the rules in this area.
A Labour source said he “engaged fully and corrected this administrative error immediately” and that the SRA would take “no further action”.
It comes after Reform’s deputy leader, Tice, was criticised for appearing to exaggerate his record in business, after the Independent reported his claim to have tripled the share price of real estate firm CLS holdings as chief executive from 2011 to 2014 was inaccurate.
according to the Guido Fawkes site, Reynolds has previously described himself as a solicitor including on his LinkedIn profile, a constituency website, and in the House of Commons.
His LinkedIn now references his time as a “trainee solicitor” at the Addleshaw Goddard law firm between August 2009 and May 2010 – as he quit to run for Parliament before qualifying.
Labour sources described the LinkedIn issue as a human or admin error from Reynolds’ office, and said his former constituency website was not written by him.
Reynolds’ current MP website states: “I was delighted to be offered a training contract to become a solicitor with Addleshaw Goddard LLP in Manchester.”
It later states that he “resigned my legal career” on becoming MP for Stalybridge and Hyde.
An SRA spokesperson said: “Our regulatory role is to protect the interests of users of legal services.
“We are aware of this issue, however having considered all factors involved, there is no need for us to take any action.”