Grant Shapps has apologised for “inadvertently” airbrushing Boris Johnson out of a photo on Twitter celebrating a space launch in Cornwall.
The business secretary made the bizarre gaffe before the first ever attempted satellite launch from the UK.
The picture Shapps tweeted showed him talking to two officials at the Spaceport Cornwall.
But the original photo was taken on June 9, 2021, when Shapps was the transport secretary in then-prime minister Boris Johnson’s government.
In it, Johnson is standing between his cabinet colleague and the spaceport staff.
In the House of Commons this morning, responding to a question from Johnson himself, Shapps said: “I think it is fitting if I start with the apology, because I saw that I inadvertently airbrushed him out of a picture on Twitter last week.
“I think my team were confused. I simply told the team he needs hair-brushing, not airbrushing.
“No one did more to progress space than him as prime minister and although that space launch wasn’t successful, it is I know the start of a very important new sector for this country.”