What is it with Labour politicians playing fast and loose with their CVs?
First, Rachel Reeves got caught out over her so-called ‘economist’ past, and now Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is in the dock for claiming to be a solicitor – when he never even qualified!
The top Labour minister repeatedly described himself as a solicitor despite never actually finishing his training.
His now-deleted website claimed he worked as a solicitor at Manchester law firm Addleshaw Goddard before entering Parliament. He even told the Commons in 2014 that he had “worked as a solicitor in Manchester city centre.”
The truth? He never completed his training contract and quit in 2010 to become an MP. That means he was never officially registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and was never legally allowed to practice as a solicitor in England and Wales.
But that didn’t stop him from doubling down on the claim. Screenshots of his LinkedIn profile—dug up by political blog Guido Fawkes—show that he listed himself as both a “solicitor” and a “trainee solicitor” between 2009 and 2010. Confused? So are we! And it doesn’t end there.
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, slammed the pattern of deception within Labour: “There is a clear pattern here. A Labour Party misleading voters, a Chancellor who lied about being an economist, and now another minister who has lied about being a solicitor. Keir Starmer needs to get a grip on his party’s relationship with the truth.”
In 2011, just a year after he entered Parliament, Reynolds took to X (formerly Twitter) to wax lyrical about his career change: “Personally, I find being an MP better for work/life balance than being a solicitor and a councillor.” That post now looks a little awkward, doesn’t it?
Since the revelations came to light, the offending webpage from Mr Reynolds’s website has mysteriously vanished, and his LinkedIn profile now only refers to his time as a “trainee solicitor.” Convenient, that.
A spokesman for the Business Secretary attempted to downplay the claims, saying that his 2014 Commons comment was simply a “mistake” and that Reynolds had always “tried to make clear he was only ever a trainee.” But with so many examples of him implying otherwise, this explanation is looking shakier by the minute.
The scandal has piled more pressure on Keir Starmer’s top team, already reeling from accusations that Chancellor Rachel Reeves had been, shall we say, economical with the truth about her own work history. She was forced to quietly alter her LinkedIn profile after it emerged she had exaggerated her time as an economist at the Bank of Scotland.
Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick didn’t mince his words, blasting Reynolds as a liar: “Reynolds was never a solicitor. Like the Chancellor, the Business Secretary fabricated his CV.” Ouch.
Meanwhile, a 2013 archived version of Reynolds’s website further adds to the controversy. The webpage—since deleted—stated: “Jonathan Reynolds was elected as the Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde at the 2010 General Election. Prior to this, he… worked as a solicitor in the Manchester office of law firm Addleshaw Goddard.”
Reynolds’s current website now takes a more cautious approach, stating only that he was “offered a training contract” at the firm and calling it a “fantastic place to work.” Not quite the same thing as actually qualifying, though, is it?
A Labour source has attempted damage control, insisting Reynolds’s Commons comment was just a “passing reference” and that there are “countless examples” of him correctly identifying as a trainee. But critics argue the pattern of misleading statements is now too big to ignore.
With Labour already under fire over Reeves’s credibility, this latest revelation about Reynolds is another headache for Sir Keir. Questions are now swirling about whether Labour’s top brass can be trusted at all.
Lying about your qualifications? That’s something that gets most people sacked. But in Labour, it seems to be a job requirement.
Main Image: Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds at 10 Downing Street. Picture by Kirsty O’Connor / No 10 Downing Street CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
