Boris Johnson is set to order Tory MPs to block an investigation into claims he lied to parliament over Partygate.
MPs will hold a bombshell vote tomorrow on whether to refer the Prime Minister to the Privileges Committee for an investigation.
But Tory whips are gearing up to order MPs to vote against the motion - while the PM is away in India and Rishi Sunak is visiting the US - meaning a probe into whether he lied cannot happen.
A source claimed no decision had been made on whipping yet. But one minister today confirmed the government was against the probe - saying there are already "a number of strands" investigating the PM and "we need to exhaust those" first.
Another minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said critics should "bear in mind" that the Privileges Committee is chaired by a Labour MP.
And Tory MPs have already been told whips will be "very sparing" with "slips" which allow them to miss votes, the Mirror understands.
The PM could face a headache with dozens of his MPs abstaining or even voting for a probe into his conduct. Labour Shadow Commons Leader Thangam Debbonaire said: "Any Conservative MP considering voting to block this investigation would be voting for a cover up.
“They should reflect on the mess they got themselves into over Owen Paterson before falling into line."
A Tory source said: ”The whips think we're going to win it, but not by as much as they’d like.”It comes hours after Mr Johnson gave an "unreserved" apology - but denied he deliberately misled MPs when he said "all guidance was followed" in No10. And he later got laughs and took a swipe at the Archbishop of Canterbury in a jovial private Tory meeting.
MPs groaned in protest yesterday as the Prime Minister apologised 89 times for his fine over a June 2020 lockdown party - but yet again claimed he didn't know his own Covid rules.
He told Parliament: "Let me also say not by way of mitigation or excuse - but purely because it explains my previous words in this House - that it did not occur to me then or subsequently that a gathering in the Cabinet room just before a vital meeting on Covid strategy could amount to a breach of the rules."
The Privileges Committee would be able to ask to see documents and photographic evidence gathered by Sue Gray's investigation into six events the PM is believed to have attended.
If approved to do so by the House, the committee could investigate and find Boris Johnson in contempt of parliament - like War Secretary John Profumo after he lied about an affair in 1963.
But with Tory MPs whipped against a probe Boris Johnson, who is today planning to jet off to India, no probe is expected to start.
A government source suggested there would be an amendment to Labour's motion to take the power out of it. They told The Times: "A neutral motion designed to kick the can down the road probably suits most Conservative MPs at this point."
Business minister Paul Scully told Sky News: "There’s a number of procedures in place at the moment. The Met Police investigation is still going on as there’s other events being investigated. Sue Gray has been charged with publishing the full report after having done her interim report a few weeks ago.
"And so there’s a number of streams of process already in action. But we’ll see what happens with the motion."
Mr Scully added: “There’s a number of strands of investigation into this whole situation. Rather than start another strand at this point in time we need to exhaust those processes.”
Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg also hinted there would be no probe, telling the BBC: "The privileges committee is a distinguished body of the House of Commons but it's chaired by a Labour Party politician, I'd bear that in mind."
The committee is chaired by Labour MP Chris Bryant but four of its seven members are Tories.
Tory former chief whip Mark Harper yesterday became the latest to demand he quit with a devastating attack to the PM's face.
Mr Harper said: “I regret to say that we have a Prime Minister who broke the laws that he told the country they had to follow, hasn’t been straightforward about it.
"And [he] is now going to ask the decent men and women on these benches to defend what I think is indefensible.
"’I'm very sorry to have to say this, but I no longer think he is worthy of the great office that he holds.”
But still just over a dozen Tory MPs have come out publicly to call for the PM's resignation, far short of 54 needed for a no-confidence vote in their leader.
And the "bullish" Prime Minister boomed “would you rather have Labour!” in a meeting packed with his supporters last night.
Several rounds of laughter and banging of tables from his supporters could be heard through the doors of the oak-panelled committee room, after a more sombre approach in public.
The source said the PM told Tory MPs his plan to send unwanted asylum seekers to Rwanda was a "good policy" despite some "criticism on the BBC and from senior members of the clergy”.
And he complained clergymen had “coincidentally had been less vociferous in their condemnation on Easter Sunday of Putin than they were of our policy on illegal immigrants”, the source claimed.
