The Conservatives have agreed to pay an artist who threatened to sue the party after it used his illustration of Andy Burnham to mock the prime minister.
Stanley Chow posted on Facebook that the party had used the picture – which Burnham has used on social media – without permission.
He had sought legal advice and threatened to take action against the party. It is understood the Tories agreed to pay a £1,000 fee for use of the image – and contributed an unknown sum to Chow’s legal fees.
The Conservatives had distributed water bottles with the image on them – accusing Burnham of being a “bottler”.
Chow posted on Facebook: “The Conservative Party have settled after their recent indiscretion of using my image without my permission.”
He added: “Maybe ask first… admittedly I would have said no, but it would have been a damn sight cheaper for the Tory Party if they just hired any illustrator to do their take on a cartoon of Burnham… hopefully this a lesson learned. Copyright matters.”
A Conservative spokesman said: “The Conservative Party values the importance of intellectual property in the creative industries. We consider this matter closed.”