Privileges Committee inquiry is the big issue for PM, says ex-ministerpublished at 13:10 British Summer Time 7 June 2022
Earlier, we took a look at some of the challenges facing Boris Johnson over the coming months.
David Gauke, a former Conservative cabinet minister who resigned rather than serve under Boris Johnson, says the inquiry by the Commons Privileges Committee into whether he knowingly misled Parliament is "the big issue".
He suggests that if a cross-party committee concludes that Johnson did mislead MPs over Partygate, either the cabinet would act to force his resignation or the 1922 Committee of backbenchers would change the rules to allow another no-confidence vote.
"I really don’t believe even this Conservative Party will be able to tolerate someone who's been found to have misled the House of Commons," Gauke says.
He says MPs will have to decide if they think the PM is still a vote-winner, and "the evidence is increasingly there that the British public have lost confidence in Boris Johnson".