133. In his written and oral evidence, Mr Johnson addressed the question of who gave him the assurances he referred to in the House on 8 December 2021, and what those assurances related to. He stated that he had received assurances from Jack Doyle and James Slack, successive No. 10 Directors of Communications, and cited evidence provided to the Committee by Mr Doyle and Mr Slack to support this. He also cited evidence to the Committee from Martin Reynolds, his Principal Private Secretary, who said he “believed that reassurances were provided by some of the senior communications staff team who were present at the [18 December 2020] event, including Jack Doyle”,[1] and from his two Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPSs), Sarah Dines MP and Andrew Griffith MP, who both recalled Mr Johnson being given assurances on one occasion by “more than one person in the room” (Dines) and “by multiple different 10 Downing Street staff” (Griffith).[2]
134. In his written evidence Mr Johnson insisted that his statements that he had received assurances were correct and did not mislead the House. He stated that when he had said (on three occasions) that he had “repeatedly” received assurances, “[b]y ‘repeatedly’ I meant on more than one occasion and by more than one person”.[3]
135. In the paragraphs that follow we consider in turn each of the claims listed above by Mr Johnson and other witnesses that assurances were given. We will examine both the content and the source of the assurances Mr Johnson referred to in the House, in order to consider whether it was appropriate for Mr Johnson to refer to those assurances in answer to questions in the House in the way that he did.
Assurances from Jack Doyle and James Slack
136. Jack Doyle was a former Daily Mail journalist who was appointed Mr Johnson’s Press Secretary in early 2020 and served as Director of Communications at No. 10 (a role providing political advice, rather than a permanent civil service role) from April 2021 to February 2022. James Slack was Mr Doyle’s predecessor as Director of Communications, being in that post from January to March 2021, having previously been the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesperson from 2017, serving under both Theresa May and Mr Johnson, and before that the political editor of the Daily Mail. Both Mr Slack and Mr Doyle were personally present at the 18 December 2020 gathering.[4]
137. Mr Johnson has stated that the “initial assurance” was given to him by Mr Doyle following the Daily Mirror’s inquiry to No. 10 referred to in paragraph 119 above on 30 November 2021.[5] In oral evidence, Mr Johnson recalled a conversation with Mr Doyle on this date. He said:
I talked to Jack Doyle about what had happened at that event [the gathering of 18 December 2020]. This is the evening of 30 November 2021; my diary says it was about 6 o’clock. He comes in and says, as you say, that the Daily Mirror is going to run this story […] I asked him about this 18 December event and I asked him to describe it […] He told me that it was within the rules. He said that people were sitting at their desks, drinking admittedly, but that was not banned; under any of either the rules or the guidance,
