Grant Shapps’ ‘edit’ of Boris Johnson resurfaces as he's made defence secretary

With former net zero minister Grant Shapps succeeding Ben Wallace as defence secretary following a mini-reshuffle by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, social media users have been quick to remind us all of his previous blunders – from cringeworthy promotional videos for government departments to a terrible ‘edit’ of a picture to ‘remove’ Boris Johnson.

As a reminder, it was back in January that the then business secretary – who has also had spells at the Home Office and Department for Transport – shared a snap from June 2022 of him with the Virgin Orbit aircraft, except with the ex-prime minister Mr Johnson missing from the photograph.

“The UK Govt is delighted to be backing the FIRST ever satellite launch on European soil. Lift-off scheduled on Monday at Spaceport Cornwall, Newquay,” the since-deleted tweet read.

The Virgin Orbit was meant to launch a satellite into orbit at the start of the year, but like Mr Shapps’ apparent attempt to sneak out an edited photograph, it failed miserably.

Now, as he’s been put in charge of the UK’s military operations, the bizarre bungling has resurfaced on Twitter/X:

According to a BBC report at the time, a source close to Mr Shapps said: “Grant wasn’t even aware anyone had edited the picture. He removed it as soon as it was pointed out.

“Obviously he wouldn’t endorse rewriting history by removing the former PM from a picture.”

And it seems Mr Johnson has forgotten about it nowadays, as he took to Twitter/X on Thursday and wrote: “Sad to see [the] departure of my friend Ben Wallace. A fine defence secretary who got so many calls right – especially on Ukraine.

“Grant Shapps is an excellent choice to succeed him.”

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.