Politics

Hilarious: Shapps photoshops Boris out of Spaceport pic ahead of doomed launch

Grant Shapps appeared to photoshop his old boss Boris Johnson out of a Spaceport picture ahead of its doomed launch last night.

The business secretary tweeted a picture of himself standing by the rocket in Cornwall, saying the UK government is “delighted to be backing the first satellite launch from European soil”.

But the launch didn’t go quite to plan after the rocket – with a variety of civil and defence applications – failed to orbit.

In a series of tweets, 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.”

Eagle-eyed Twitter users were quick to point out that the picture of Shapps was originally taken next to former PM Johnson, who now spends his time raking in big money from speaking gigs.

The editing skills would make North Korea blush.

Nice try, Shappsy.

Related: Shapps supports plan to treat NHS patients in hospital car parks

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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