Boris Johnson and Grant Shapps (Yui Mok/James Manning/PA)

Boris Johnson was with Grant Shapps for a photocall at the UK spaceport

By PA Reporters
16:46 - January 10, 2023
(Updated, removing quote in par 9)

A picture posted on Business Secretary Grant Shapps’ Twitter account appeared to show him as the only politician with Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart and a colleague while standing in front of the LauncherOne vehicle at the spaceport at Newquay Airport in Cornwall – former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is nowhere in sight.

Evaluation: False

This meeting did not happen as depicted in the image. The then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson was stood between Mr Hart and Mr Shapps, as shown in this image on the official Number 10 Flickr account which was taken on June 9, 2021.

The facts

The image in the tweet on Mr Shapps’ Twitter account on January 8, 2022, which has now been deleted, was edited to remove Mr Johnson. It is unclear who made the changes.

Screengrab from the Twitter feed of @Goosey30111568 showing a comparison of the two images
A screengrab from the Twitter feed of @Goosey30111568 showing a comparison of the two images (@Goosey30111568/Twitter/PA)

An almost-identical image, complete with Mr Johnson, was published on the official Flickr account of Number 10, dated June 9 2021 and by Virgin Orbit’s Twitter account on June 29 2022.

Several other images – taken on the same date at the same event by the same photographer – were also published on the official Number 10 Flickr account and show Mr Johnson was present, here; here; and here.

Analysis of the image by the PA news agency shows it to be identical to the photograph taken on June 9, apart from Mr Johnson being missing.

In the image tweeted by Mr Shapps’ account, the three men all appear to be listening and reacting to something, with a large gap between Mr Shapps and Mr Hart; a black mark can be seen in the centre of the image which appears to be Mr Johnson’s elbow when compared with the original photo; and the logo on the fuselage of the plane is very blurry behind where Mr Johnson’s head would have been. All this suggests the photograph has been doctored.

A reverse image search for the image used on Mr Shapps’ Twitter account found five uses of the original image, all including Mr Johnson, showing the original version has been used multiple times in the past.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has been contacted for comment.

Links

Grant Shapps’ now-deleted tweet (archived)

Original photo on Number 10’s official Flickr account (archived)

Reverse image search results (archived)

Virgin Orbit’s use of the original image (archived)

Virgin Orbit’s tweet with the original image (archived)

Other images of Boris Johnson at the same event: here (archived); here (archived) and here (archived).

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