THE official general election artist claimed yesterday that he had been the victim of a “sinister” attempt within parliamentary circles to censor and delay an exhibition of his satirical drawings from the campaign trail.

David Godbold, 44, was commissioned by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art. But he was a controversial choice, as he does not produce real-life representations. MPs seeing his drawings for the first time may well wonder whether he was actually on the trail.

The proof lies in the flyers and ephemera he picked up at campaign meetings, and over which he created 18 highly detailed, Old Master-style drawings annotated with his caustic, political texts.

Godbold’s work, inspired by the 18th and 19th-century satirists Rowlandson, Gillray and Daumier, includes some scathing attacks, particularly on Tony Blair and Labour’s handling of the NHS, Iraq and postal voting.

Although he comes from a staunch Socialist background and was “delighted” when new Labour got into power, his treatment by the party during the campaign soured his view of the Government. He said yesterday that, whereas the other parties had welcomed him, Labour officials had repeatedly tried to refuse him entry to events. On one occasion he had found himself locked in a room for 20 minutes while checks were made.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “Press conferences were for working journalists. They were hugely oversubscribed. We had to prioritise space for the working media.”

Having delivered his drawings within four weeks of the election, as requested, Godbold encountered “a move to stop” the promised exhibition at the House of Commons in June or July. “I don’t know where it was coming from, but it was within Labour,” he said. “Their attempt to censor my work has been sinister and shocking.” He believes that the Speaker’s Office repeatedly delayed the exhibition because of the drawings’ controversial content.

The exhibition finally opens today at the Commons. Godbold said that, with the help of his solicitor, he had ensured that none of his drawings were censored.

On behalf of the Speaker’s Office, Hugo Swire, the chairman of the advisory committee and Shadow Minister for Culture, said that the censorship issue was “an absurd allegation”.

There had been concern about whether one of the drawings should be published, however. The image incorporates an abusive letter from a member of the public to David Lammy, the black Culture Minister. Godbold drew an image of Moses holding a tablet with 227 promises, rather than the ten commandments, over the racist outpouring in the letter. The committee was concerned about incitement and infringement of the letter writer’s copyright.

Other drawings include a satire of the Government’s handling of the NHS. Godbold used an official flyer with the slogan, “For the sake of Britain’s health, let’s eradicate TB once and for all”. On it he drew a Christ-like figure asking Mary, depicted as a homeless person, “What do you want, blood?” as he drops coins into her begging bowl.

ARTIST PORTRAIT

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