Exclusive:
A Labour spokesperson branded the former Tory leadership candidate as “Honest Bob Jenrick” after a boast on his website and CV was found to be entirely false
Ambitious Tory Robert Jenrick has been forced to correct his own CV – after accusing Labour politicians of embellishing theirs.
In a biography on his website, Mr Jenrick claims to have been “the joint youngest Cabinet Minister since the Second World War, tied with Harold Wilson and William Hague” when he was made Housing Secretary in 2019.
But he was 37 at the time he was elevated to the cabinet, while Wilson and Hague were 31 and 34 respectively when reaching Cabinet minister status.
Mr Jenrick’s lengthy LinkedIn bio runs to over 300 words, including grandiose statements about his “formative years” being “defined by fundamental conservative values”.
In recent days he’s attacked Labour politicians including Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds for correcting errors on their CV.
Mr Jenrick said on Twitter : “In the real world, if you lie about your CV you resign”
A source close to Mr Jenrick said the error had now been corrected.
A Labour Spokesperson said: “Honest Bob Jenrick has a lot to say about other people but now he’s been caught red handed telling porky pies about his own career.
“It’s an open secret that Jenrick is on manouevres given calamity Kemi Badenoch ’s bungling leadership, but watching him trying to pass off a Labour Prime Minister’s achievement as his own is a boast too far.
“The shadow justice role requires integrity.
“No one should take a thing that Honest Bob says seriously.”
Meanwhile, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has written to Keir Starmer offering an unreserved apology for the inadvertent errors made on his CV and providing an explanation.
It’s understood PM has accepted his apology.
On Friday a legal watchdog reopened an investigation into claims Mr Reynolds misrepresented his career as a trainee solicitor in the early 2000s.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said it would look into claims Mr Reynolds had listed work as a solicitor on his LinkedIn page even though he did not finish his legal training.
The SRA decided not to take action in January because the error had been corrected.
But on Friday a spokesperson said: “We looked at that issue at the time we became aware of it and contacted Mr Reynolds about the profiles. 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.”
They did not say what the new information was.
