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Double take: Grant Shapps tweets historic photo which edits out Boris Johnson

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Grant Shapps appears to have edited Boris Johnson out of a picture
Grant Shapps appears to have edited Boris Johnson out of a picture

There are few comparisons between Grant Shapps and dictators of yore – mercifully – but it appears he may be the beneficiary of a tried-and-tested trick of historical figures.

Shapps posted a photo to twitter on Sunday which appeared to show him alongside two officials from Britain’s space programme welcoming the launch of Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl – a launch which did not go entirely to plan – when he was Transport Secretary.

A twitter user @isntdave however noticed an eerie similarity to a previous photo posted on Virgin Orbit’s account back in June – which featured former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

https://twitter.com/VirginOrbit/status/1541941685566902273?s=20&t=Xed332tQEzkXs9vOTJURlA

Twitter users needless to say weighed in, comparing the now-Business Secretary Grant Shapps’ apparent removal of the former Prime Minister to tactics employed by other historical figures.

https://twitter.com/harry_lye/status/1612777076528148480?s=20&t=Xed332tQEzkXs9vOTJURlA

A source close to Shapps told The Sun: “Grant wasn’t aware anyone had edited the picture. He removed it as soon as it was pointed out. Obviously he wouldn’t endorse anyone rewriting history by removing the former PM from a picture. He was proud to serve in Boris’ Government”

Unfortunately, the attempt to make British space history by launching a rocket into orbit from UK soil has ended in failure after suffering an “anomaly” during the flight.

After taking off from Cornwall, the Virgin Orbit plane flew to 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean where it jettisoned the rocket containing nine small satellites towards space.

Organisers of the Start Me Up mission said the rocket – with a variety of civil and defence applications – failed to orbit.

In a series of tweets, Richard Branson-owned Virgin Orbit said: “We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating the information.

“As we find out more, we’re removing our previous tweet about reaching orbit. We’ll share more info when we can.”

Early on Tuesday morning, Virgin Orbit issued a statement which said: “Out of five LauncherOne missions carrying payloads for private companies and governmental agencies, this is the first to fall short of delivering its payloads to their precise target orbit.”

The Department for Business has been contacted for comment.