For some, being ousted from No 10 was apparently not enough for Boris Johnson. Grant Shapps, the business secretary, posted a photo on Twitter that appears to have removed the former prime minister from the picture. Shapps tweeted the image in advance of the rocket launch from Spaceport Cornwall, speaking of his delight at backing the first launch of a satellite from European soil. The photo shows Shapps enjoying a solitary visit to the spaceport, laughing with the Virgin Orbit chief executive, Dan Hart, and Ian Annett from the UK Space Agency. Social media users were quick to point out that Johnson appeared to have been erased from the image – an identical picture is still on the No 10 Flickr account, dated 9 June 2021, with the former PM standing between Shapps and Hart. Shapps subsequently deleted his tweet after the apparent editing was spotted but many users had screengrabbed both images.
The launch attempt on Tuesday morning ended in failure after an “anomaly” during the flight. After taking off from Cornwall, the Virgin Orbit plane flew to 35,000ft over the Atlantic 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 – had failed to orbit.
After the launch failed, Shapps told Sky News: “Space is difficult. Everyone’s used to seeing rockets which explode from Japan, what have you. The great thing about this technology is that no one was harmed. The pilots came back in the aircraft. It didn’t work. I’ve no doubt that they’ll pick themselves up, dust themselves off and they’ll go again once they find out what exactly went wrong with it.” Shapps did not know the time schedule for another possible attempt. “It was a big moment nonetheless yesterday,” he added. A source close to Shapps said: “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’s government.” A spokesperson for No 10 said they had not seen the photo tweeted by Shapps.