Ian Hislop says standards in British public life are “very depressing”, as he denounced the lobbying culture of MPs in a standards committee session this afternoon.

Asked by the standards committee chair, Chris Bryant, how MPs were doing on standards in British public life, Hislop complained they were “not good”.

The editor of Private Eye added the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal was proof the “system failed.”

In a tense exchange with liaison committee chair Sir Bernard Jenkin, Hislop was pressed on whether better dialogue was needed around understanding rules on lobbying.

Hislop complained: “Why do you have to explain to a new MP why he shouldn’t lobby for a company that’s taking government contracts?

“Why isn’t that blatantly obvious?”