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Nigel Farage's Christmas card cheerfully depicts white van driving over party leaders

But celebrated cartoonist Christian Adams claimed that the image was used without his permission

Ella Alexander
Tuesday 02 December 2014 12:28 GMT
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This probably wasn't the Q&A that Nigel Farage wanted
This probably wasn't the Q&A that Nigel Farage wanted

Nigel Farage has managed to do the unthinkable and be deliberately funny.

His 2014 Christmas card encapsulates festive cheer like no other with an illustration of what is seemingly the Ukip leader driving a white van over David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. Ukip flags hang ominously in the background.

In keeping with the spirit of goodwill to all men, the van is an unambiguous reference to a controversial tweet shared by Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who posted an image of a van outside a house in Rochester covered in St George’s flags, captioning it with “Image from #Rochester”.

However, his traffic accident version of Christmas has not been received well by Telegraph cartoonist, Christian Adams, who Ukip claims designed the card.

Writing on Twitter, he said that the party didn’t request his permission to the drawing. Responding to a comment made by journalist Zoe Williams, who suggested he sue Ukip, he said that the Telegraph were investigating the issue.

However, Adams has since told The Independent that Ukip has donated the license fee to the Telegraph's Christmas appeal, in aid of The Abbeyfield Society, Masanga Mentor Initiative and Medical Detection Dogs.

Tony Blair’s Christmas card was leaked on Twitter yesterday and caused quite a stir – as social media users compared his the uncomfortable grin to that of Friends character Chandler Bing and The Demon Headmaster from the Nineties children’s television series.

One political blog has described the image as “godless” and another suggests that the couple “want to deck your halls with blood. possibly”.

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