Richard Desmond, proprietor of the Daily Express and Daily Star, has spoken out against editors being involved in newspaper regulation.

Speaking to a parliamentary select committee, Desmond said that he did not believe editors should be involved in regulation. "Let's not have editors of newspapers who sit in a little cabal and, when it's their turn, that editor withdraws and gets discussed behind his back by competitors,” he said.

"It would work better if the people on that committee were not the same people who were working as day-to-day editors and executives on rival newspapers.”

According to The Guaridan, Desmond also criticised the Daily Mail, as well as the Press Complaints Commission itself.

Desmond is reported to have described the PPC was “an old boys club” and also admitted that he was “not proud” of the seven cases his group had faced in the space of two years.

He also described the lack of coverage of the phone hacking scandal by the Daily Mail as "hypocritical".