Jonathan Reynolds has apologised for referring to himself as a solicitor in parliament but denied ever “misrepresenting” himself professionally amid calls by the Conservative party for an investigation.
The UK business secretary, who is in India to restart free trade talks, said he had spoken to the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) last week after it told him it was deciding whether to open a formal investigation.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, wrote to the SRA asking whether Reynolds had misrepresented his legal career, including by telling the Commons in 2014 that he had “worked as a solicitor in Manchester city centre”.
Speaking to the Guardian in New Delhi, Reynolds said that “over a decade ago” he had “used shorthand” in a speech that was “not a speech about the legal profession or legal regulation or the law”.
“I apologise for that, but again, I don’t think anyone would have interpreted that in any way that I was misrepresenting myself professionally,” he said.
“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.”
The business secretary criticised the “personal attacks” from the Conservatives, which he said were designed to “distract the government”.
After being contacted by the SRA, which said it was examining “new information” at the end of last week after receiving new complaints, Reynolds wrote to Keir Starmer to apologise. The prime minister accepted his apology.
Reynolds said the Conservative party didn’t “have an agenda yet to come back to the country with” and its personal attacks were “about trying to sort of distract the government”.
He said that his talks on Monday with his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal, had gone “really, really well so far” and that they were focused on “outstanding issues” left after the Conservatives carried out 14 rounds of talks.
“Piyush was absolutely of the same mind as me – we look to the future,” he said.
At a press conference, Goyal confirmed that “business visas will be required” as part of an eventual deal that would “open up” the UK and Indian service sectors. Both ministers said the talks were progressing well but declined to commit to a timeline.
Reynolds said he was planning to travel to Washington DC at the end of March to discuss a trade agreement with Donald Trump’s administration.
He said the UK was starting from a “very solid place” because, unlike the EU, the US did not have a trade deficit with it. “You can even say, in their parlance, they’re winning on their own criteria when it comes to that trading relationship.”
He added that not being part of the EU customs union after Brexit was an advantage because “we can chart the path which is just purely in the UK’s interest”.
“I would like to see, in a whole range of areas, closer US-UK trade. I think the dynamism they have on technology, their venture capital scale-up system is absolutely second to none, their talent in universities,” he said.
The business secretary said he had spoken twice to Howard Lutnick, the new US commerce secretary, and was “hoping to get the United States to have those conversations in person” at the end of March, after a visit to Japan.
He singled out AI, for which ministers have delayed plans for regulation, saying: “I think on areas like AI, I don’t think the EU’s got their regulatory framework quite right. There’s a lot of business concerns about that. The US is in a different place to the EU, I think again this could work in our advantage in terms of taking that forward.”
Reynolds indicated that the UK’s digital services tax would form part of the discussions with Washington, after Trump threatened retaliatory tariffs on countries that tax big US tech firms. “It’s well-known the US has concerns about things like the digital services tax,” he said.
