As Robert Jenrick was inspecting a children’s refugee centre in Kent in July, he saw a Disney-style mural and, according to Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council,  said it gave ‘an impression of welcoming’, which he ‘didn’t want to show.’

So he reportedly demanded it was painted over, and while the Home Office didn’t respond directly to questions on the mural, Jenrick later claimed in the House of Commons that changes to the site were made to make it more ‘age appropriate’.

When I first heard about this, I felt furious.

But remarkably, this started a series of events that ended up so breathtakingly positive it has brought people I know to tears.

Angered by the casual censorship (of actual cartoons!) I got in touch with the refugee centre in question, offering to get a bunch of us national cartoonists – from the Professional Cartoonists Organisation (PCO) – together to repaint it.

I sent out a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) saying as much and was bombarded with offers of tea, cake, free paint, crowdfunding and lots of mural artists to help out.

However, after looking into it, the political tripwires and access permissions of the centre made it unworkable. So I wrote an open letter detailing how ‘utterly appalled’ I was with Jenrick’s actions.

That’s when we at the PCO – a politically neutral organisation – got our heads together. This project would be just for the kids.

Our treasurer, Amy Amarni, came up with the idea of a colouring book for refugee children as a small token of fun and distraction. It was perfect.

A page each – of black and white scenes, many depicting life in Britain – by every top cartoonist in the country, who I would try to recruit.

If half of the cartoonists said yes, it would work. Unexpectedly, everybody I reached out to said yes. Absolutely everybody.

Some, like political cartoonist for the Observer, Chris Riddell, did five drawings. Soon enough, famous names like Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam, along with illustrators Posy Simmonds, Ralph Steadman and Sir Quentin Blake contributed.

Comic magazines like Viz got on board, then the Beano and The Phoenix – all of them doing a page each for the book, like London landmarks, British historical figures or iconic Mr Men characters.

Every day, more joined in. Then we were emailed by 38 Degrees, the charity behemoth, offering to take distribution and funding under its wing – and we were set.

We knew they were the right people for us when, during a Zoom call meeting, Media and Communications Manager Hannah Graham said the immortal words: ‘It shouldn’t be controversial to be nice to children.’

As I write, the first book is on its way to the printers. This will be the first print run, to be handed out to children at refugee centres across the country all with a little pack of colouring pencils. The second, larger book will be sold to the public at Christmas to raise money for refugee charities.

For the child, it is a simple colouring book. They might one day discover that it had a backstory of an entire country’s cartoonists rallying in support behind them. Or they might not and it will remain just a colouring book.

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For the public – who have sent us overwhelming support – it has become a symbol of goodwill where they often felt hopeless to act for change. The outpouring of support from the public has been utterly overwhelming. 

For us, the cartoonists, it has become an assembly of like-minded outrage that had been building up for years. Between us, we found a way of countering the casual cruelty of a government in humanitarian freefall.

Although I am the face of this project, I merely got the ball rolling and it is with the PCO that the praise should lie.

We stood up together as one to tell people like Robert Jenrick that refugees are welcome here. 

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