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The director of the official Vote Leave campaign has been found in contempt of parliament for failing to appear before the same fake news inquiry previously shunned by Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg.

Dominic Cummings was asked to give evidence to the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee last year, and his failure to show up was referred to the Commons privileges committee (CPC) in June.

His refusal to meet MPs has been labelled as "significant interference" in the work of the inquiry, which was set up to look into how the spread of disinformation online may have influenced elections and other public votes.

DCMS committee chairman Damian Collins said Mr Cummings, who survived a bid by sceptical Tory MPs to force him out of the Leave campaign, had shown a "total disregard" for the authority of parliament by not taking part.

But Mr Cummings, a former special adviser to Michael Gove, will avoid much in the way of serious sanctions as the CPC has limited enforcement powers.

He can only be issued with a formal "admonishment" for his conduct, which Mr Collins said was insufficient.

"The Dominic Cummings case highlights the need for parliament to define in law what its powers should be to require witnesses to attend hearings, and what sanctions should apply if they do not," Mr Collins said.

"The current powers have been tested to their limits and found wanting."

The CPC said the case "raised further questions" about the power parliament and committees had to secure important evidence, adding that it would be resuming an inquiry into the matter.

Mr Cummings was also accused in the final report into his no-show of "grandstanding" and "spreading errors and lies" on his personal blog, which he has used to urge Leave voters to prepare for a second referendum.

He called on the 17.4 million people who voted for the UK to leave the EU in 2016 to "start rebuilding our network now", and confidently predicted that the campaign would again prove successful if another vote came about.

"Beating them again and by more will be easier than 2016," he wrote on Wednesday, adding that Remain supporters had treated the public with contempt.

He also criticised some Brexit-supporting Conservative MPs for being "useful idiots" for those campaigning for a so-called People's Vote.

Mr Cummings has previously criticised the Brexit plans put forward by Theresa May as "unacceptable", and described her former Brexit secretary David Davis as "clueless".

Mr Cummings was not the last significant figure to avoid the fake news inquiry, with Facebook chief Mr Zuckerberg having been empty-chaired after refusing to attend in November.

Internal Facebook documents were subsequently seized by parliament and the company was heavily criticised throughout the inquiry.