Grant Shapps has said a mysteriously deleted photo of Boris Johnson he tweeted was “completely screwed up”.
Eagle-eyed social media users noticed that an image posted from Mr Shapps’ social media account last month – before the rocket launch from the Cornwall spaceport – was different from the original image containing Mr Johnson.
this The edited image shows Mr Shapps touring the spaceport alone.
It has now been removed from Twitter, but the original is still on the Number 10 Flickr account as of June 9, 2021.
Asked about spraying former prime minister Boris Johnson out of a photo celebrating a space launch, Mr Shapps told Sophie Ridge on Sunday: “It’s a total mess.”
Politics Center: People can ‘draw their own conclusions’ about Truss’ claims – Shapps
“Someone, I think 18 months ago, two years ago, screwed up the picture.
“Actually, someone did it with a Pixel phone and it was picked from the file and sent, not on purpose.
“I love Boris Johnson, I love working with him. I have no reason to want to do that.”
Sources close to the business secretary at the time insisted he was not aware that the photo had been edited.
“Clearly, he will not support anyone rewriting history by removing the former prime minister from photographs,” they said.
Elsewhere in an interview with Sophy Ridge, Mr Shapps said people could “draw their own conclusions” when it came to the latest article written by former prime minister Liz Truss.
He said Ms Truss’ latest article in the Sunday Telegraph included “what people have always known”.
Asked about Ms Truss’ comments in which she said she had been brought down by a “left-wing establishment”, he continued: “She described that in the article.
Shapps responds to Truss article
“But I will say, and she has said it herself, that the most important thing we can do for the British people is to ensure economic stability.”
He added: “I think anyone in public office has the right to express their arguments. That’s what we do as politicians. You say what you believe, and you express them.
“If I say, people can read it and draw their own conclusions.”
He said Ms Truss had the right priorities when she was prime minister, but she failed No attempt to deal with “big structural problems” first.
Mr Sharps explained that he agreed that the UK should have a low-tax economy, as the short-lived prime minister advocated, but that inflation and debt needed to be tackled first.
He also told the show that he was “focused on Rishi Sunak” and winning the next general election.