Nigel Farage has promised a private prosecution against the Business Secretary after accusations that he misrepresented his legal career.
The Reform UK leader told a party event in Cornwall that Jonathan Reynolds has “never had a proper job in his life”.
Mr Reynolds worked as a trainee solicitor in Manchester but left his legal career behind without fully qualifying when he entered politics.
The Stalybridge and Hyde MP has apologised for referring to himself as a solicitor in Parliament, but denied ever “misrepresenting” himself professionally.
He has been accused of describing himself as a solicitor on his LinkedIn page, in the Commons and on a former constituency website.
Mr Farage told the Reform UK Cornwall Conference on Monday evening: “Jonathan Reynolds, who’s never had a proper job in his life, who tells us he’s a solicitor when he’s never been qualified, which is a criminal offence.
“I can tell you tonight that there will be a private prosecution brought against Jonathan Reynolds.”
According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) “it is a criminal offence for someone to call themselves a solicitor or act as a solicitor if they are not on the roll of solicitors”.
This could include someone “describing themselves as a solicitor on their social media profiles”.
Mr Reynolds, speaking during a trip to New Delhi, told the Guardian that he had used the term “over a decade ago” as “shorthand” in a speech and he did not think it was “a huge deal”.
He added: “I apologise for that, but again, I don’t think anyone would have interpreted that in any way that I was misrepresenting myself professionally.
“And I just want to be absolutely clear, for a speech, I think, 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.”
Last week the SRA said it would reinvestigate Mr Reynolds after “further information” came to light.
“We looked at that issue at the time we became aware of it and contacted Mr Reynolds about the profiles,” the watchdog said on Friday.
“The materials were corrected, and we closed the matter with no further action based on all the evidence we had at the time.
“However, we’ve now become aware of further information, so we will look at this.”
Previously a Labour source suggested the reference to him being a solicitor on his LinkedIn profile was “human error” and said Mr Reynolds did not manage the profile.
