Mary Tourtel was created in 1920, at a time when the "Express" was in competition with "The Daily Mail" and its then popular comic strip "Teddy Tail", as well as the strip "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" in "The Daily Mirror". The then news editor of the "Express", Herbert Tourtel, was approached with the task of producing a new comic strip to rival those of the "Mail" and "Mirror" and immediately thought of his wife Mary, already an established author and artist. Rupert Bear was the result and was first published as a nameless character in a strip titled "Little Lost Bear" on
Daily Express that he would be looking to change the tone of the paper. Jones said that he had found past pages of the newspaper “downright offensive,” adding that they made him feel “very uncomfortable” and contributed to an “Islamophobic sentiment” in the media. With the exception of the 2001 general election, when it backed the Labour Party, the newspaper has declared its support for the Conservative Party at every general election since World War II, until 2015 where they began supporting the UK Independence Party. However, in the 2017 UK general election the "Daily Express" reverted to supporting the Conservative Party.