By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-03-12 20:26:09 | Updated at 2025-03-13 02:10:16
5 hours ago
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has corrected the record after falsely claiming to have been a solicitor in the House of Commons.
Speaking in the chamber this evening, Reynolds said: "It has come to my attention that in a speech I made on April 28, 2014, recorded in column 614 of Hansard on the subject of high speed rail, I made a reference to my experience of using our local transport system in Greater Manchester when I worked as a solicitor in Manchester City Centre.
"I should have made clear that that was a reference at the time to being a trainee solicitor.
"This was an inadvertent error - and though this speech was over a decade ago, as it has been brought to my attention, I would like to formally correct the record."
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Farage had threatened to bring a private prosecution to Reynolds's door in Cornwall last month
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"I can confirm that there will be a private prosecution against Jonathan Reynolds for breaking the law," he told attendees at the party's Cornwall conference.
"If Starmer doesn’t act, we will," he added, and laid into the Labour minister for "never having a proper job".
The Business Secretary then issued an apology the next day.
Speaking to the Mail in New Delhi, Reynolds said he did not think the claims had been a "huge deal" - but wished to apologise if anyone had "misunderstood".
The Prime Minister is said to have accepted his Business Secretary's apology
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"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."
"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 said.
And in a jab at Robert Jenrick, who had filed a series of complaints about Reynolds to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, he said: "I think these kind of personal attacks are about trying to distract the Government."
Reynolds is understood to have apologised to Sir Keir Starmer days before the apology, with the Prime Minister accepting his Business Secretary's regrets.
