THE fall out from the standards investigation that led to Owen Paterson resigning as North Shropshire's MP has continued, with a televised rant from TV star and satirist Ian Hislop on Friday night.

Then on Saturday, former Prime Minister Sir John Mayor took aim at Boris Johnson's government over its handling of the vote which initially overturned Mr Paterson's suspension for breaking lobbying rules, before Downing Street intervened.

This led to Mr Paterson, who it seemed was longer from free from suspension, officially resigning as North Shropshire's MP, and on the hit BBC1 show Have I Got News For You, Mr Hislop – who also edits Private Eye – gave a brutal assessment.

WATCH: HIGNFY's Ian Hislop gives his view on the Owen Paterson affair:

 

Summed up here are just sum of the things Mr Hislop said:

"(An attempt) by the government to cover the misdeeds of one of their own Tory MPs and to undermine democracy, transparency and accountability."

"And they failed, due to the fact that it was so b****y blatant – even they didn't get away with it.

"There's a man called Owen Paterson, who was paid £100,000 a year to lobby on behalf of two companies.

"He did this, the commissioner for standards looked into him and found he was guilty and said 'you did it'.

"He said 'I didn't, it wasn't me, I haven't had a chance to plead my case' – he had and it was absolutely unbelievably clear-cut.

"Then all his Tory mates started a campaign and the Prime Minister said 'oh we're changing the entire system now'.

"Paterson was going to be suspended for 30 days and now they said no he's not and all the Tory MPs voted it through.

"They should be shamed of themselves, apart from Peter Bottomly and a few others who didn't (vote with the government).

"But they basically said that if you criticise us, we're going to change the system and it's really quite shocking."

Mr Hislop then went onto suggest that Mr Johnson's motivation was 'an act of revenge' following other investigations by the 'Standards Commissioner into his own actions in recent months, although admitting immediately that that claim was 'without evidence'.

Meanwhile, Sir John – speaking on BBC radio and whose own government in the 1990s was undermined by sleaze rows – hammered Mr Johnson's administration.

He said: "I think the way the Government handled that was shameful, wrong and unworthy of this or indeed any government. It also had the effect of trashing the reputation of Parliament.”

He also rebuffed claims that Mr Paterson could end up with a peerage – which has been suggested by government sources – stating the House of Lords selection committee would object.

Olly Rose, from the North Shropshire Green Party, has also urged votes to 'continue to vote Green' after it confirmed it would be fielding a candidate in the election, which potentially could be former Oswestry mayor Duncan Kerr, who has stood against Mr Paterson previously.