As Guido reported last week there is some consternation in Downing Street over Jonathan Reynolds’ heft in the business and trade brief, especially with Trump as president. Reynolds’ previous career experience leaves some to be desired…
Reynolds received solicitor training at Addleshaw Goddard for ten months between August 2009 and May 2010 after leaving BPP Law School. He describes leaving the firm suddenly – and never qualifying – to campaign in the election:
“At short notice before the last election, my local MP decided to stand down and several people approached me and asked me to put my name forward as a possible candidate to replace him. I went on unpaid leave, won the selection contest, and was almost immediately thrust into a General Election campaign.”
Fast forward to 2014 and Reynolds has upgraded his past training work to just “solicitor” in a spoken contribution in parliament: “Before the last election, I worked as a solicitor in Manchester city centre.” A spokesman for Reynolds says this was a mistake…
The business secretary has never been registered on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s register – on which all practicing and non-practicing solicitors are registered. You can’t say you’re a solicitor without this as it is a legally-protected name – to do so would contravene the terms of the Solicitors Act 1974. Worth being accurate…
This error has been reflected in his biographies and recent press coverage. The New Statesman‘s George Eaton described his work “as a political assistant to the former cabinet minister James Purnell and as a solicitor.” As recently as October a glowing Times write-up said: “Aside from a few years as a solicitor, Reynolds has spent his entire working life in politics.” The only problem is that Reynolds never got far enough to fully qualify as an actual solicitor…
A spokesman for Reynolds said he tries to make clear he was only a trainee prior to his becoming an MP but could not say if attempts had been made to clarify to newspapers that Reynolds never actually worked as a solicitor. The Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade’s biography of Reynolds said he worked as a solicitor before entering politics.
Reeves has been caught upgrading the journals in which her economics essays were published this morning. The Labour cabinet isn’t averse to CV inflation…
In Henry Mance’s piece today for the FT, lunching with Nigel Farage:
“Splendido!” Farage says, when the drinks arrive; I suppose it’s a step to European reconciliation. We clink glasses, and he lights the first of two back-to-back Benson & Hedges. A few minutes later, we’re back downstairs. “Are you drinking? Good.” He orders a glass of Sauvignon blanc for each of us — not a bottle, “because it’s Lent” — followed by a bottle of claret, to have with our meal. They say Farage drinks less than he used to. They say a lot of things.”