UK government may block committee probing if Boris Johnson misled Parliament about breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules

• Boris Johnson faces a Commons committee probing if he misled Parliament by denying breaking lockdown rules.
• Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated the government may block the probe because it is chaired by a Labour MP.

A Parliamentary investigation into whether Boris Johnson misled MPs by denying attending lockdown-breaking parties could be blocked by the government because it would be chaired by a member of Labour, a minister has indicated.

The government may block an opposition motion seeking to open a privileges committee inquiry investigating if Johnson misled Parliament, with an initial vote due on Thursday.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former leader of the House of Commons, told the BBC that the committee was a "distinguished body." The committee is "chaired by a Labour Party politician. I'd bear that in mind," Rees-Mogg added.

The privileges committee is chaired by Labour MP Chris Bryant, who holds the chair together with the chair of the standards committee. Both committees have a majority of Conservatives amongst its MPs, with the standards committee's membership having non-partisan lay members in addition to the MPs.

Johnson wouldn't say if Conservative MPs would be whipped to vote down the motion on Thursday.

Under the standing orders of the House of Commons, the standards committee – and by extension, the privileges committee – must be chaired by an opposition MP.

Dr Alice Lilly, a Parliamentary procedure expert at the Institute for Government thinktank, told Insider that the chairs are held together because the two committees used to be one Standards and Privileges Committee until 2013.

"Both have Conservative majorities, to reflect the makeup of the Commons," Lilly said, "but the House's rules state that their chair, who chairs both committees, must be a member of the Opposition. This is to help ensure that the government can't use its majority to avoid tricky issues."

The government would have to change the rules of the House of Commons in order to replace Bryant with a Conservative MP, a proposal that would be likely to "go down like a lead balloon", Lilly said.

A source close to Rees-Mogg declined to provide further detail on his remarks.

Johnson's premiership continues to come under pressure after it was revealed that staff at 10 Downing held multiple illegal social gatherings during coronavirus-related lockdowns. A report into so-called "partygate" ripped "failures of leadership" around the scandal.

Senior Conservative backbencher Mark Harper called for Johnson's resignation as prime minister and leader of the party.

Harper, a former chief whip, responded to a statement Johnson gave in the Commons by saying he had submitted a letter of no-confidence to the chair of the 1922 committee.