How senior Tories’ frantic efforts failed to block Boris Johnson inquiry

Analysis: Ministers thought they had pulled a rabbit out of the hat but the rebellion would not be contained

Lurking at the entrance to the House of Commons voting lobbies on Wednesday night, the government's new chief whip stood clutching his phone, devising and rewriting a single sentence he hoped might save the prime minister the embarrassment of being investigated for allegedly misleading parliament.

Chris Heaton-Harris quietly grappled with the text of an amendment that aimed to derail a Labour motion to trigger an inquiry by the Commons privileges committee into whether Johnson lied about rule-breaking in Downing Street.