The Business Secretary has apologised for describing himself as a solicitor despite having never finished his training.
Speaking for the first time since the solicitor’s watchdog said it would look into complaints against him, Jonathan Reynolds said he was sorry if people had ‘misunderstood’.
In an interview with the Mail in New Delhi where he is holding talks on a trade deal with India, he said that he had repeatedly referred to himself as a trainee solicitor.
‘I’ve never presented myself as a qualified solicitor. I have made repeated references to being a trainee solicitor in government press releases, on social media, covered very extensively in the legal press,’ he said.
Asked how he would respond to Conservative calls to resign, Mr Reynolds said he didn’t think the claims had been a ‘huge deal’ but said he wished to apologise if anyone had ‘misunderstood’.
‘For a speech – and I think a tweet or maybe a Facebook post over a decade ago – I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but I should apologise for that, if anyone has misunderstood that, but I don’t think they have,’ he said.
‘I’m doing a job every day for the country, certainly on this trade stuff here in India, and I’m focused on that.’
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has opened two inquiries into his description of himself as a fully qualified solicitor on LinkedIn, his personal website and in Parliament.
The SRA previously decided to take no further action against Mr Reynolds over his LinkedIn profile in which he described himself as a trainee and a solicitor.
It has since said that it has received new evidence and would look into whether he has broken the rules around calling himself a solicitor.
Mr Reynolds said that the watchdog had been in touch with him about this over the weekend following complaints sent by shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.
The watchdog has the power to impose fines if it finds wrongdoing but it has not launched an official investigation against him.
Asked about the prospect of a fine yesterday, Mr Reynolds reiterated: ‘I do not believe anyone has thought I am advertising or selling or conducting myself as a qualified solicitor secretly for the last 15 years.’
He added that he had ‘no embarrassment’ about being a trainee and had attended law school as a mature student before making a last-minute decision to run as an MP.
Asked whether the complaints against him were a ‘witch hunt’ by the Conservatives, he said: ‘I think these kind of personal attacks are about trying to distract the government.’
It is understood that he apologised to Sir Keir Starmer at the end of last week, and the Prime Minister accepted his apology.
It comes after Rachel Reeves was accused of embellishing her CV after describing herself as an economist before changing it to reflect that she worked in retail banking.
Questions were also raised about how long the Chancellor had worked at the Bank of England, and claims about her expenses from her time at the Halifax Bank of Scotland.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has also been accused of ‘inconsistencies’ in her CV after differing claims about how long she worked as a carer.