Reform retract grim attack ad following legal challenge

On 30 May, Reform UK posted a grim AI slop post which depicted refugees holding ‘Vote Andy‘ banners. Now, the party has been forced to take down the post following a legal challenge from the creator of the banner image:

NEW: Nigel Farage has deleted a post using Andy Burnham's portrait after the artist launched legal action for using it to push "anti-immigration" messaging

Stanley Chow: "My work has been used without permission to share a message that I fundamentally disagree with" pic.twitter.com/76wuglQq8K

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 6, 2026

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Stanley Chow VS Reform

Stanley Chow is the artist who created the now-familiar cartoon of a dour-looking Burnham with a red background. Chow is a Mancunian and a second-generation immigrant, and has said that Reform’s AI monstrosity “misrepresents what the image stands for and what I believe in”.

He added:

For me, this is straightforward – my work has been used without permission to share a message that I fundamentally disagree with. To see my portrait, created to represent something positive about Manchester and Andy’s vision for the city, being used without my permission to push agendas, including an anti-immigration message, is fundamentally unfair and wrong.

Chow sent a letter to Reform HQ requesting at least £5,000 in damages and an apology. Reform claimed in response that their post was fair use, and that the party has:

removed the posts in good faith and without any admission of liability on our part

Reform also claimed the legal action was “politically motivated”. Given that Reform is a political party, it can argue any action against itself is ‘politically motivated’. In other words, its spokespeople shouldn’t get away with using it as a get-out-jail-free card.

Dehumanisation

Regardless of whether the post ends up being legally sound or not, it was clearly disgusting. The people who travel by small boats to the UK are human beings who face tremendous risks. Turning them into a sick joke like this demonstrates that Farage & .co put very little value on human life.

If you think they don’t have a similarly low opinion of British lives, by the way, you’re going to be in for a shock should they ever take power.

Featured image via Carl Court (Getty Images)

By Willem Moore

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