Christopher Booker, the former Telegraph journalist and first editor of Private Eye, has died aged 81.

Mr Booker was a columnist for The Sunday Telegraph from its launch in 1961 to March this year when he retired.

Allister Heath, Editor of The Sunday Telegraph, said: "Mr Booker was one of the great social critics of his generation, and one of the leading campaigning journalists of the post-war era.

"We are honoured to have published him and, on behalf of everyone at The Telegraph, we send our condolences to his family and to all those who knew him."

He penned his final article for this paper on March 31, citing health reasons as his reason for leaving.

"One of my guiding principles as a journalist had long been to bring to light what I considered to be some shockingly important story which was not being properly covered elsewhere," he wrote.

"And one of the reasons I have been very grateful to The Sunday Telegraph is the unusual freedom it gave me to pursue a long succession of such campaigning stories, if necessary for years on end."

Mr Booker has written about literature, butterflies, religion, architecture, climate change and the European Union among other subjects.