An artist is considering legal action after the Conservative party used his cartoon to mock Andy Burnham. Stanley Chow, a Manchester-based illustrator who works for the New Yorker magazine, created a cartoon of the prime minister for campaign material in the Makerfield byelection earlier in June. At the Conservative conference this weekend, party workers handed out water bottles to journalists with the slogan “bottler Burnham” above Chow’s cartoon.
He told the Guardian that the Conservatives did not ask permission before using his image: “I am taking legal advice, I may take legal action. It is copyright infringement, they are stealing my artwork to use for their own purposes. It’s amazing how it got signed off – that really disappoints me.” Chow first realised the cartoon was being used while watching Sky News.
The presenters held the water bottles up to the camera and laughed at the joke slogan. I am peeved.” Chow said he had written to the Tories asking for an explanation but had not heard back. It was deployed for an anti-immigration message – a stance the artist does not endorse.
Colin Bell, a partner at the law firm Brabners, said: “This is a clear case of copyright infringement. It’s important because an artists’ work, created with care and intention, has been used and edited without permission and without acknowledgment or remuneration. Stan is entitled to an injunction – or undertakings to cease and desist and take down the infringing works – compensation and a public apology.
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