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Michael Gove says he would not vote for a report that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over Partygate.
The housing secretary told the BBC there were areas where the ex-PM "falls short" of expectations.
But the recommendation Mr Johnson should have been suspended for 90 days if still an MP was "not merited", he added.
Mr Gove said he would abstain in the vote scheduled for Monday.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is yet to say how he vote on the report into his former boss.
In the report, the Commons privileges committee said Mr Johnson had deliberately misled MPs over lockdown parties in Downing Street.
He had "personal knowledge" of rule-breaking, and had "closed his mind" by not seeking assurances about compliance, it found.
It said it would have recommended a 90-day Commons suspension for Mr Johnson, partly because of his furious reaction to an advance copy of the report's findings, including him calling the committee a "kangaroo court".
The suspension will not apply given the former prime minister quit as an MP before the report was published.
The committee said his calling the committee a "kangaroo court" in his resignation statement had "impugned the integrity" of Parliament.
But speaking to BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Gove said a ban of such length - rare in recent years - was "not merited by the evidence the committee have put forward".
He added that there were "complexities" in the report, and it wasn't right to reduce it to "a single badge to pin on Boris Johnson".
Opposition parties are likely to vote to endorse the report scheduled for Monday, which also calls for Mr Johnson of the parliamentary pass he would normally be entitled to as a former MP.
Downing Street has yet to say how Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will vote, or even if he will take part.
It is also not yet clear whether a division - where MPs go through the voting lobbies to indicate their support - will even take place, with Mr Johnson asking his supporters not to vote against the report.
If no one in the chamber shouts "no" to oppose a motion approving the report, it will be passed without a division, meaning the votes of individual MPs will not be recorded.
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