‘Funny with a little anger’: illustrator on his ubiquitous image of Andy Burnham

With its light scowl and dark attire, Stanley Chow’s creation has become visual shorthand for the politician’s anti-establishment sentiment

It was shortly after Andy Burnham’s famously rousing speech outside the Manchester Central Library in October 2020 that Stanley Chow decided to draw him. Or rather his wife did.

“It was the pandemic and we were all so down in the dumps at that point,” says the illustrator, speaking from his home in the city this week. But I remember looking around and he had just moved everyone.