How political cartoonists influenced both Churchill and Sunak's crushing election defeats

The recent general election happened to be the first to be held in July since 1945. Taking a political cartoonist’s perspective, the 1945 and 2024 elections had other similarities. Both ended with crashing Tory defeats and a consequent Labour landslide. However, thanks to polling, today’s cartoonists were already expecting Labour’s gargantuan victory. 

In 1945 it came as a complete surprise to virtually all the cartoonists. After all, Churchill was immensely popular, having been given the credit for keeping Britain afloat during the dark days of 1940 and for having just led the country to victory over Germany. He was cheered by huge crowds on his election tour across the entire country.

What cartoonists did not know was that the public would applaud Churchill but vote against him. Unlike today, there were then a number of loyal, Tory-supporting cartoonists, primarily working for the Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Dispatch, Western Mail and the Daily Sketch. In comparison, today’s political cartoonists are either anti-Tory or ambivalent to all the leading political parties, often with a ‘plague on all your houses’ approach.

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Of course, in 1945 political cartoonists had far more influence on their readers than they have today. Newspaper circulations were in their millions, radio was still in its infancy and there was no competition from either television or social media. The most influential cartoonist of the 1945 election, David Low, a man sympathetic to Labour, strangely disappeared from the Tory-supporting Evening Standard for two weeks. The London paper explained this by telling its readership that Low’s health had “compelled him to take a rest by the sea”. 

Daily Express journalist and later Labour MP Tom Driberg, for one, thought it “suspicious”. It was remarkable, to say the least. Low was missing the first general election in 10 years; one which offered the electorate the chance to decide who would rebuild Britain after the war. Other left-wing cartoonists felt it was an opportunity of a lifetime, and as a result, threw themselves into it. According to the Daily Mirror editor Hugh Cudlipp, cartoonist Philip Zec, for example, “worked overtime” during the 1945 election.

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One striking similarity between 1945 and the 2024 general elections is the way both respective Tory prime ministers, Winston Churchill and Rishi Sunak, made a series of major faux pas during the campaign that most likely had an adverse impact on the electorate’s opinion of them. 

With Rishi Sunak, political cartoonists had an absolute field day. From him announcing the election in the pouring rain; to going to the Titanic Quarter in Northern Ireland and being asked if he was captaining a sinking ship; to stating that he would bring back national service for 18-year-olds, to leaving the D-Day commemorations early to do a TV interview; to claiming he had a disadvantaged upbringing due to not having had a Sky TV dish at home when he was growing up; to being humiliated daily by the election betting scandal. 

Churchill’s biggest faux pas during the 1945 campaign was his infamous broadcast of 4 June where he claimed a Labour government would have to employ a form of “Gestapo” to implement its policies. This was a major miscalculation of public opinion. Labour leader Clement Attlee, a moderate and unassuming man, had been responsible for much of Britain’s domestic policy during the war, exactly what most people now wanted the new government to focus on.

Labour ministers such as Minister of Labour, Ernie Bevin and home secretary Herbert Morrison had also proved themselves capable. Attlee sarcastically thanked Churchill for showing the electorate the difference between the war leader and the party leader.

Probably the cartoon that had the greatest impact of any election, be it 1945 or 2024, was the Daily Mirror’s Zec cartoon which first appeared on 8 May, the day the war against Germany ended. It was used again on the front page of the Daily Mirror on 5 July 1945, the day of the 1945 general election. The text suggested that the best way to preserve peace was to vote for the Labour Party. The cartoon summed up the mood of the general public.

The Daily Mirror was inspired by a reader’s letter. Mrs C Gardiner wrote about the hopes she had when her soldier husband returned home, ending with the pledge “I shall vote for him.” The paper took up the theme on its front page, with the words: “Don’t lose it again – vote for them.” Hugh Cudlipp claimed that the cartoon had more influence than any other factor in helping Labour win the 1945 general election.

Dr Tim Benson is the UK’s leading political cartoonologist. His book, Churchill: A Life in Cartoons is out now (Penguin, £16.99). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

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