Harriet Harman, a senior Labour MP, is set to be appointed as the head of a new Partygate investigation into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs.
The 71-year-old, who has served as interim Labour leader twice, is widely expected to be appointed chair of the House of Commons’ Privileges Committee.
However, her appointment will be contentious, with Conservatives outraged that such a ‘overtly political’ figure will be in charge of a probe that could have a significant impact on Mr Johnson’s future as Prime Minister.
The cross-party committee, comprised of seven MPs in total, will investigate claims that Mr Johnson purposefully misled the Commons with his previous denials of Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street.
Last year, the Prime Minister assured MPs that no Covid rules were broken and that guidance was followed at all times in Number 10.
Since then, police have issued 126 fines, including one to Mr Johnson, for violations of Coronavirus regulations in government buildings.
The committee’s findings could jeopardize the PM’s political future once more.
Should the committee find that Mr. Johnson was intentionally dishonest to the Commons, Tory MPs have threatened to launch a new attempt to remove him.
A number of Conservatives have questioned whether Ms Harman is the right person to chair the committee.
The Camberwell and Peckham MP previously accused Mr Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak of misleading the Commons after both were issued Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) for violating Covid rules.
Chris Bryant, Ms Harman’s Labour Party colleague, resigned as chair of the Privileges Committee earlier this year.
Following his previous public criticism of the PM over Partygate, he stated that this was done to avoid accusations of political bias.
Conservatives have questioned why Ms Harman has not recused herself from the committee as well.
According to one senior Tory MP, Ms Harman’s appointment as chair made it less likely that Tory members of the committee would accept a strict verdict against the PM.
‘Chris Bryant is totally unsuitable to be chair of the committee because he is hugely party political,’ they said.
‘Harriet is probably the second most improbable person to be chair of that committee.’
They added: ‘You could think of lots of people, Stephen Timms… there’s plenty of people on the Labour back benches who are not overtly political and have a lot of respect across the House.’
Another Tory MP told MailOnline: ‘She has made public comments about Boris.
‘To be fair, Chris Bryant recused himself… so you are thinking, how does that fit with her taking over?
‘She will no doubt try to guide it appropriately and put a lot of our colleagues on the Conservative side under a lot of pressure.’
As well as Ms Harman, the other members of the committee are Tory backbenchers Andy Carter, Sir Bernard Jenkin, Alberto Costa and Laura Farris, as well as the SNP’s Allan Dorans and Labour’s Yvonne Fovargue.
Mr Carter, Mr Costa, and Ms Farris have all resigned from their positions as Parliamentary Private Secretaries (aides to ministers) in order to avoid the perception of bias.
Ms Harman stated in April, when it was announced that both Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak had been fined by police, that the PM and Chancellor accepting their FPNs meant they were ‘also admitting that they misled the House of Commons.’
The committee is expected to look into claims that the PM’s wife, Carrie Johnson, sent text messages referring to an alleged illegal gathering in the Downing Street flat in June 2020.
Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, did not look into the alleged gathering as part of her Whitehall investigation into Partygate.
Yesterday, prominent Tory rebel Steve Baker warned the Prime Minister that if the Privileges Committee found him guilty, he would face another attempt to depose him as Conservative leader.
The former minister told Mr Johnson in a Times article that if he was found to have deliberately misled the Commons, he would be expected to resign.
‘If he were not to resign in those circumstances, it may prove necessary to take action to remove him,’ he added.
‘It is one thing to make an inadvertent error, but intolerable to deliberately mislead.’
Mr Baker also warned the Prime Minister that if he tries to prevent the publication of any Privileges Committee report, he will face another revolt against his leadership.