Key figures who back his account

Martin Reynolds, Boris Johnson’s principal private secretary:

‘I and others involved in organising and attending the gatherings believed that they were in line with the regulations in force at the time. I believe these decisions were taken in good faith and were reasonable on a common sense reading of the relevant regulations... The attendees included some of those responsible for the regulations. I believe inhouse lawyers were copied into some invitations.’

James Slack, the then prime minister’s official spokesman:

‘I honestly don’t think that anyone who was in that room was breaking any rules. They were with their colleagues, who they sat with all day every day for 12 hours.’

Jack Doyle, Downing Street director of communications:

‘As per my evidence to the Sue Gray report, in relation to the events I attended I said I believed no rules were broken... I advised the PM that I did not consider the event of December 18, 2020, to be a party, as per my evidence to the Cabinet Office investigation.’

Tory MP Andrew Griffith, Mr Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary:

‘It is my honest belief that Mr Johnson did not deliberately or negligently mislead the House... I recall that in the daily office meeting, as newspapers initially published allegations of gatherings in No 10, Mr Johnson was given assurances by multiple different 10 Downing Street staff present.’

Tory MP Sarah Dines, another parliamentary private secretary:

‘I remember on one occasion while I was at a meeting with Mr Johnson with many other people in the Cabinet Room that Mr Johnson as[ked] a question of the meeting, “we did follow the rules at all times, didn’t we?” I recall more than one person in the room said “Yes, of course.”... I am about 90 per cent sure one of them was Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary.’