Tories pay artist for Burnham images after legal threat

The Conservatives have agreed to pay illustrator Stanley Chow after using his portrait of Andy Burnham on conference water bottles without permission. The settlement followed Chow’s threat of legal action and highlights the need to respect copyright when using creative work.

The party is understood to have paid a £1,000 fee for using the image and made an undisclosed contribution to Chow’s legal costs. The illustration was created in 2021 and used to label Burnham a “bottler”; Chow said the Conservatives should have asked first, while the party said it considers the matter closed.