Business secretary Grant Shapps was caught in a Twitter blunder when he posted a doctored picture of that erased Boris Johnson from a picture promoting the Virgin Orbit space launch.

Users on the micro blogging platform immediately spotted the glaring omission in the picture showing the business secretary meeting with two officials from Virgin Orbit captioned: “The UK Govt is delighted to be backing the FIRST ever satellite launch from European soil. Lift-off scheduled Monday at Spaceport Cornwall, Newquay.”

Mr Shapps says he was not aware it had been edited and has now deleted it but not before the original picture with the ex PM surfaced.

A source close to Mr 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 Johnson’s government.”

Labour’s public health minister Andrew Gwynne took a swipe at Mr Shapps in a Commons debate on the government’s planned strikes legislation.

“Perhaps he should spend less time on photo shop and more time on the day job sitting down and negotiating,” he told MPs.