When Ian Hislop suggested that female politicians were too “modest” to host Have I Got News For You, the backlash was swift.

Anna Soubry, the Conservative MP, was first to announce that she had offered to present the show but had been turned down. “Still available, boys,” she said.

Now the female producer of the show has given her reasons for not booking Soubry and her Westminster colleagues: they are simply not good enough, but are too “greedy” and ego-driven to accept that they should be panellists rather than hosts.

“People say, ‘It’s not difficult, I’ll do it!’” said Jo Bunting, a producer on Have I Got News For You for 13 years.

“I want the lights to come up and you see who the guest host is and you think, ‘Ooh, it’s Jo Brand, or Alexander Armstrong.’ I don’t think people are going to say, ‘Ooh, brilliant, it’s Anna Soubry.’

“It’s not good enough for our viewers.”

Bunting said the programme-makers have “asked every female politician endless times” to appear as panellists, but that most will only agree to appear if they can be the host.

“Ego, isn’t it? And the other thing is money, I suppose. You get paid a lot more [than being a panellist]. They’re not stupid and they’re quite greedy,” Bunting told Radio Times.

Paul Merton sits next to a handbag after former education secretary Nicky Morgan pulled out of filming credit: Richard Kendal/BBC

Of the 11 serving and former politicians to host the show, only one - Ann Widdecombe - was female. Paul Merton, one of the team captains, criticised her for being “arrogant”, saying: “Suddenly she thought she was Victoria Wood.”

Soubry tweeted earlier this year: “A charming Ian Hislop called & invited me on the panel of #HIGNFY (again). I declined not because I’m a woman but because I’m a politician & not daft! I offered to present it but he turned me down! I’m still available boys.”

Nadine Dorries, Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, appeared as a panellist in 2012 but said the experience was “too vicious” and she would not return.

Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, enjoyed her appearance and said she would welcome the chance to host the show, although she would find it more challenging.

Bunting did concede that the programme “needs to up its game a bit” by bringing in more women writers and producers.

She is redressing the gender balance in current affairs by hosting her own Radio 4 topical comedy show, Now Where’s The F In News. It will have an all-female line-up.

Bunting set about inventing a format that would “bring women’s voices to the fore” on a wide variety of topics. She said: “If you see all women [on a programme] there’s an assumption - ‘Ooh, are they going to talk about diets and mascara?’

“If you see an all-male panel, you don’t expect them to just be talking about beer and football, do you? I don’t want it to feel alienating for men.”

But the show will be low on banter. Bunting said: “I’m not overly keen on banter. Who is? Well men.”