Times may be changing in the corridors of Westminster, but a new government will always mean new opportunities for ridicule.

This is the opinion of award-winning satirist Armando Iannucci, who this week offered tantalising information about upcoming new episodes of The Thick Of It.

Now in its fourth series, the popular fly-on-the-wall sitcom will find the foul-mouthed spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker and the former office drones in the fictional Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship (DoSAC) out of office - replaced by a fresh, but similarly incompetent, coalition government.

Speaking at a private screening of his new US show Veep, Iannucci told journalists,

“We've just finished filming, it's all in the can. There's a new government, it's in coalition, our previous cast are in opposition and we go backwards and forwards between the two.”

Perhaps the most exciting revelation was Iannucci’s comment that a “major inquiry will feature quite heavily”, implying that the new series will parody the current Leveson inquiry into press standards.

“It is interesting watching them all swear on oath and then saying what they say,” he said.

The news comes after Alastair Campbell recently lambasted Iannucci on Twitter for accepting an OBE. The former spokesman for Tony Blair, who is thought to have inspired the creation of Malcolm Tucker, accused the satirist of “joining the Establishment he claims to deride”.

Iannucci responded to the attack in typical fashion, tweeting, “It’s probably more Establishment to order your army to march into other countries for no reason”.