Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he will not tell Conservative MPs how to vote on any potential sanctions a committee may recommend for Boris Johnson over his alleged partygate involvement.
Former prime minister Mr Johnson is preparing to face an investigation over claims he lied to Parliament over the scandal about parties and other gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff held during Covid-19 lockdowns.
Mr Johnson will give evidence before a committee on Wednesday, in a session that could determine his political future.
If he is found in contempt of Parliament, Mr Johnson could be suspended from the House of Commons and even face a recall petition, which could lead to a by-election, giving his constituents in Uxbridge and South Ruislip the chance to remove him.
However, Mr Sunak has said he will not instruct MPs on how to vote on any sanctions the committee may recommend.
The Prime Minister told BBC Breakfast: "These are matters for Parliament and the house and MPs as individuals, rather than for government. So that is the general process that we will follow."
Asked whether he agreed with the portrayal of the inquiry as a witch hunt by some of Mr Johnson's associates, Mr Sunak said: "That's ultimately something for Boris Johnson and he'll have the committee process to go through and that's a matter for Parliament. That's not what I'm focused on."
Mr Johnson is facing a wait for the publication of his defence to allegations he lied, which allies claim will provide evidence that he did not mislead Parliament knowingly.
The former prime minister's allies urged the cross-party Privileges Committee to publish his testimony "as soon as possible" after turning it over on Monday afternoon.
But clerks and lawyers are still combing through the lengthy document.
Mr Johnson was asked to provide a written submission in July last year but submitted it only 48 hours before his televised questioning by the committee on Wednesday afternoon.
The committee confirmed it had received the evidence, key to Mr Johnson's political future, at 2.32pm on Monday.
Conor Burns, a Tory MP who served as a minister in Mr Johnson's government, has raised questions about the committee's chairwoman, Labour grandee Harriet Harman, while Conservative peer Lord Greenhalgh backed a campaign for the four Conservative MPs on the Tory-majority committee to pull out of the "kangaroo court".
Mr Burns, a long-standing ally of Mr Johnson, who served under him at Westminster and London City Hall, told Times Radio: "I'm concerned that it will be a witch hunt."
Boris Johnson through the years - in pictures
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Boris Johnson has had an eventful time during his life in politics and journalism. Here, 'The National' looks back at his life in pictures. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson attends the coronation ceremony of Britain's King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in May. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson leaves his home to attend a televised evidence session in March in front of the Commons Privileges Committee. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson listening to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy address parliamentarians in Westminster Hall in February. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and Carrie Johnson arrive at Westminster Abbey for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson he announces his resignation as prime minister outside 10 Downing Street in July 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson at a press conference in response to the publication of the Sue Gray report into Partygate at Downing Street in May 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson reads the long-awaited report by senior civil servant Sue Gray into the Downing Street party scandal, in his Downing Street office in May 2022. Photo: Downing Street -
Mr Johnson and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in central Kyiv in April 2022. The British prime minister paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv in a show of solidarity with Ukraine. AFP -
Mr Johnson watches an early morning police raid on a home in Liverpool as part of an operation to thwart drug dealing, in December, 2021. Getty Images -
The prime minister battles with his umbrella while with Prince Charles at The National Memorial Arboretum in July 2021, in Stafford, England. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and his wife before the Uefa European Championship final between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium, London, in July last year. Getty Images -
The British prime minister with US President Joe Biden, European Council President Charles Michel, former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi during the G7 Summit in Cornwall, in June 2021. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson with his wife Carrie in the garden of 10 Downing Street after their wedding at Westminster Cathedral, in May last year. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson visits Hartlepool after Conservative Party candidate Jill Mortimer won a parliamentary by-election in May, 2021. Getty Images -
The prime minister after receiving the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine at St Thomas' Hospital in London in March, 2021. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson after signing a Brexit trade deal with the EU in December 2020. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson examines a vial of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 candidate vaccine, at a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Wrexham, Wales, in November 2020. Getty -
Mr Johnson demonstrating the two-metre distancing rule during his visit to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Upminster, East London, in August 2020. PA -
In this photo, published alongside the Sue Gray report into the Partygate affair, Mr Johnson is seen at a gathering in the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street on his birthday in June, 2020. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and former chancellor Rishi Sunak use hand sanitiser during a visit to the Pizza Pilgrims restaurant in June 2020, in east London, to see how they are getting their business ready to reopen as coronavirus lockdown restrictions were lifted in England. PA -
Mr Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds applaud key workers outside 10 Downing Street in May 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson in the Cabinet Room observing a minute's silence in April 2020 in a tribute to the health staff and key workers who died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA -
Boris Johnson appears on monitors for a meeting in March 2020. The prime minister chaired morning meetings on the coronavirus remotely from Number 11 Downing Street, while self-isolating after testing positive for the virus. Reuters -
Members of a family listen as BMr ris Johnson makes a televised address to the nation from 10 Downing Street in March 2020, where he outlined the latest instructions to stay at home to help contain the Covid-19 outbreak. AFP -
Mr Johnson speaks to British troops stationed in Estonia during a one-day visit to the Baltic country in December 2019. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and Carrie Symonds enter Downing Street as the Conservatives celebrate a sweeping election victory in December 2019. Getty -
Boris Johnson is greeted by staff at 10 Downing Street after meeting Queen Elizabeth II and accepting her invitation to form a new government in December 2012. PA -
Former US president Donald Trump and Mr Johnson arrive for a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in August 2019 in Biarritz, France. Getty -
The queen welcomes Mr Johnson as the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, during an audience in July 2019. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson, then Britain's foreign secretary, stands in front of St Basil's Cathedral during a visit to Moscow's Red Square in December 2017. Getty -
Mr Johnson collides with a child during a Street Rugby tournament in Tokyo in 2015, held to mark Japan hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup -
As mayor of London Mr Johnson competes in a tug-of-war in October 2015. Getty Images -
The Olympic Flag is passed from Mr Johnson to IOC President Jacques Rogge during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Getty Images -
Mayor of London Boris Johnson with Prime Minister David Cameron during the lighting of the Paralympic Cauldron in Trafalgar Square, in August 2012. PA -
Boris Johnson gets stuck on a zip-line during a BT London Live event in Victoria Park in August 2012. Getty -
Mr Johnson and Lord Sebastian Coe cheer as a giant set of Olympic rings is displayed from Tower Bridge in June 2012, Getty Images -
Mr Johnson gestures attends a Harry Potter studio tour of Diagon Alley, at the Warner Brother Studios, London, in December 2011. AP Photo -
Mr Johnson at the launch of London's first cycle hire scheme in July 2010. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson with artists' impressions of the design for London's new Routemaster bus in May 2010. Getty Images -
The candidates to be mayor of London; Labour's Ken Livingstone, Conservative Boris Johnson and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick, being questioned on BBC's 'Newsnight' programme in April 2008. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson on the North Pier in Blackpool during the Conservative Party conference there in October 2005. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson at his desk in 2000 while he was a journalist for 'The Telegraph'. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson when he was president of the Oxford Union society speaking to the Greek minister for culture Melina Mercouri when she addressed the union. Reuters -
Boris Johnson in September 1979, at Eton School. Shutterstock
The Prime Minister's official spokesman responded by saying Mr Sunak "firmly believes it's a matter for Parliament".
He endorsed Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt's warning that "a very dim view will be taken" of anyone who "tries to prevent them from carrying out this serious work".
She also said the committee must be able to "work without fear or favour".
Mr Sunak's spokesman added: "We think this is a committee that's carrying out a function asked to by Parliament, it's a parliamentary matter, and the Leader of the House set out how we would want parliamentarians to engage with it."
No 10 Downing Street was also forced to deny it had delayed key announcements because of the distraction of Mr Johnson's inquiry.
"It's wrong to suggest government business changes as a result of this committee hearing," the spokesman said.
The hearing clashes with a crucial vote on Mr Sunak's new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, which Democratic Unionist Party MPs plan to oppose.
An estimated £220,000 ($269,390) of taxpayers' money has been allocated for Mr Johnson's legal bills.
If the committee rules that he misled the house, they will consider whether it was "reckless or intentional" and amounted to a contempt of Parliament.
An interim report by the committee this month said evidence strongly suggested breaches of coronavirus rules would have been "obvious" to him, as prime minister at the time.
But Mr Johnson claimed it was "clear" he had not committed any contempt of Parliament, arguing there was "no evidence in the report that I knowingly or recklessly misled Parliament" or failed to update it in a timely manner.
Mr Johnson has also sought to cast doubt on the findings of Sue Gray's report on partygate, after she quit the civil service to take up a role in Labour leader Keir Starmer's office.
On BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour, Mr Burns said: "I rate Harriet Harman highly, but she did tweet in April 2022 that if [Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak] admit guilt, by which she said was accepting a fixed penalty notice, then they are also admitting that they misled the House of Commons.
"Boris Johnson contests that but it seems to me the person who is chairing this committee has predetermined it and that causes me a degree of anxiety for Parliament's reputation in handling this with integrity."
The Privileges Committee is examining evidence around at least four occasions when Mr Johnson may have misled MPs with his assurances to the Commons that lockdown rules were followed.
The committee will publish its findings on whether Mr Johnson committed a contempt of Parliament and make a recommendation on any punishment but the ultimate decision will fall to the full House of Commons.
Mr Sunak has said he will not seek to influence MPs on the committee and is expected to grant a free vote in the Commons on any sanction that may be recommended.
A suspension of 10 sitting days or more for Mr Johnson could ultimately trigger a by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat in London, which he held with a majority of 7,210 in 2019.
