Good morning. Boris Johnson is back at the Covid inquiry later this morning and, although yesterday was tough, today is likely to be even more challenging for him. He is expected to face questions on why he ignored calls from scientists for a second lockdown for weeks, why he repeatedly made comments in public suggesting he would be happy to see old people if that was necessary to keep the economy open, and why he allowed Partygate.

But if you think Johnson v Hugo Keith KC will be the best example today of a senior Tory giving implausible answers in response to hostile questioning, you probably weren’t listening to Suella Braverman being interviewed by Nick Robinson on the Today programme right now.

Although the two stories are separate, they are not unrelated. Support for the Conservative party crashed as a direct result of Johnson’s leadership, and Partygate, both of which are being investigated by the inquiry. And if the Tories were not 20 points behind in the polls, it is hard to believe that their MPs would be at war with each other with such hostility.

In her Today interview, Braverman’s biggest whopper came when she was asked if she thought Rishi Sunak should remain Conservative leader if he did not change his Rwanda policy. Braverman replied:

No one’s talking about leadership, or changing leadership.

Robinson replied: “That’s nonsense, and you know it’s nonsense.” He said Tory MPs were talking about a leadership challenge, and that Braverman had held meetings to discuss this herself.

But that wasn’t even Robinson’s most hostile intervention. That came when he put it to Braverman that she was “a headline-grabber who does it by spreading poison, even within your own party”. In response, Braverman said she “sought to be honest”, and that honesty involved saying uncomfortable things.

Braverman’s main argument was the one she also made yesterday in her personal statement to the Commons – that the Rwanda plan drawn up by Sunak did not go far enough.

She also denied wanting to bring down Sunak. She claimed that she wanted him to succeed, and that she hoped he would lead the party into the next election.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, was also interviewed on LBC this morning. Asked about the prospect of Sunak facing a leadership challenge, he replied:

I think it’s highly unlikely, very unlikely. I’d say vanishingly small.

At this point it is very hard to tell how the Tory crisis will unfold. For Sunak to face a confidence vote, 53 Conservative MPs would have to write to Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, requesting one. This seems unlikely before Christmas, but this time yesterday no one was even talking about this seriously as a potential outcome. Now it is conceivable.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Boris Johnson resumes giving evidence to the Covid inquiry.

10.10am: Victoria Prentis, the attorney general, takes questions in the Commons.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

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