The Conservative Party has agreed to pay artist Stanley Chow after using his illustration of Andy Burnham without permission on water bottles handed out at its conference to brand Burnham a “bottler”.

Chow sought legal advice and threatened action over the use of the portrait, which he created in 2021 and which Burnham has used on social media. The party is understood to have agreed a £1,000 fee for the image and an undisclosed contribution towards Chow’s legal costs.

Announcing the settlement on Facebook, Chow wrote: “The Conservative Party have settled after their recent indiscretion of using my image without my permission.”

Chow, a Labour supporter, said he would have refused permission had the Conservatives approached him. His criticism went beyond the failure to ask: he argued that commissioning a different illustrator would have avoided the expense.

“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.”

The distinction matters to his complaint. He was not offering the Conservatives a licence they had neglected to purchase; he said he would not have authorised that use of his work at all.

Chow, a Manchester United supporter, has drawn footballers including Wayne Rooney, Edgar Davids, Ronaldinho and Eric Cantona, and presented Sir Alex Ferguson with a portrait. His “Great Northerners” exhibition featured Maxine Peake, Emmeline Pankhurst and Lemn Sissay. He also recently curated an art trail for the Brit Awards’ arrival in his home city.

A Conservative spokesman said: “The Conservative Party values the importance of intellectual property in the creative industries. We consider this matter closed.”

The settlement resolves the dispute, but the undisclosed legal contribution leaves the party’s total bill unknown.