Long Bailey worked as a solicitor at a commercial law firm and was never employed by the NHS

Rebecca Long Bailey, the Labour leadership candidate, made inaccurate statements about her legal career while standing as an MP.

On being unveiled as the Labour candidate for Salford and Eccles in 2014, she declared: “I have been working as a solicitor with the NHS in Manchester for the past 10 years.” However, Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) records reveal she qualified in November 2007.

When she spoke of her decade-long career, she had practised for 6½ years as a solicitor.

During the 2015 general election, Long Bailey also distributed leaflets stating: “I studied law and became a solicitor for the NHS to help defend our health service.” She added that she became a lawyer to “give something back”.

Yet she spent almost all of her career