Boris Johnson appears to have been erased from a photo tweeted by Grant Shapps. The Business Secretary took to Twitter ahead of the rocket launch from Spaceport Cornwall to share a picture of a 2021 visit.
But social media users were quick to point out that Mr Johnson, who also went on the trip, had disappeared from the snap in the now-deleted tweet.
An identical photo remains on the Number 10 Flickr account, dated June 9 2021.
It shows the then-Conservative leader, brow furrowed and arm raised, wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words: “Prime Minister.”
Mr Johnson and Mr Shapps are stood side by side in Cornwall during a visit to LauncherOne.
A source close to the Business Secretary 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.”
But the tweet was picked up by social media users, with YouTuber Mahyar Tousi saying: “Rishi’s government have done a Stalin and photoshopped Boris out of this pic.”
A launch attempt on Tuesday morning ended in failure after suffering an “anomaly” during the flight.
After taking off from Cornwall, the Virgin Orbit plane flew to 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean 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 – failed to orbit.
After the launch failed, Mr 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.”
Mr Shapps did not know the time schedule for another possible attempt.
“It was a big moment nonetheless yesterday,” he added.
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